


The Road beneath the Sand

by lonely_pilot, Schreibmaschine



Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game), Mad Max Series (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Mad Max, Car Chases, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, M/M, Manipulation, Temporary Character Death, Violence, Weapons
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-27
Updated: 2020-12-29
Packaged: 2021-03-09 21:20:54
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 9
Words: 33,155
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27742897
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lonely_pilot/pseuds/lonely_pilot, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Schreibmaschine/pseuds/Schreibmaschine
Summary: Gavin had enough of doing the right thing. It had done him no good in the past and after all that happened, a quiet life at the Citadel was all he wanted. Who cared that Amanda had total power? Who cared if androids were constantly killed and reset for her cause? Well, Gavin has to learn that telling himself he didn't care and not caring were two completely different things.
Relationships: Upgraded Connor | RK900/Gavin Reed
Comments: 26
Kudos: 34
Collections: Reed900 Reverse Big Bang





	1. Supply Run

**Author's Note:**

  * For [lonely_pilot](https://archiveofourown.org/users/lonely_pilot/gifts).



Endless sands, wherever he looked. Sand to his left, sand to his right, a road in front of him and the burning sun overhead, baking him behind the steering wheel of his truck. The heavy vehicle ploughed through the wandering dunes that had swallowed large stretches of road, while he kept a watchful eye on his escort: A hot-rod with a lancer in front of him, two old muscle cars tailing him and four bikes weaving their way through them. Just another supply run. He glanced into the distance, where the silhouette of Gastown wavered in the searing air above the road. He watched his side mirror and saw the flashing light signal from the Citadel. Only seconds later there was the answer from Gastown. Water was on the way. Acknowledged. Gavin drove on, watching his surroundings.

A supply run like any other. Not different to the countless others he had made. As the Citadel grew smaller behind him, he reached over for the shotgun on his passenger seat. The further they drove away from the Citadel the more dangerous their journey would become. At some point backup from either side would take too long to reach them and water was a scarce resource in the waste. More than once neighbouring clans had attacked them for it and Gavin took pride in the fact that never even once they managed to get their hands on him or his cargo. He planned on keeping up that quota.

They neared the riskiest point in their journey and Gavin clapped the barrel of his gun against the window frame. Immediately a warboy appeared by his side. The white hull pieces of the machine in the sun caused Gavin to squint at him.  
‘You called boss?’  
Gavin nodded and showed the android his shotgun, then pointed it towards the horizon in front of him. The android nodded and climbed back up on his truck. ‘Get the weapons ready!’, he shouted over to the other warboys in the escort vehicles and Gavin watched the lancer of the car in front of him get ready. The bikes too regained a neat formation to the sides of the tanker. The human pilot nodded to himself, securing ammunition next to him and keeping an eye out for enemies.  
Some called him lucky. But in truth he just had a feeling for danger. And as he woke up this morning, he knew this day wouldn’t be easy on them. Not that any day in the sands ever was.

It seemed Gavin’s gut feeling would be proved correct after all, as he saw dust clouds rising to the skies behind the next dune. He cursed, pulled his bandana over his nose and floored the gas pedal, clicking it into hold. He would need all the speed he could get if this turned out to be more than just a sudden gust of wind. He would not allow the convoy to be stopped by anyone. He took his foot from the pedal and tensed up in anticipation. The cloud of sand slowly shifted through the sky and towards the road. Gavin fixed the point where the dune stopped, and a car could be hidden until the very last moment.

He just needed seconds to act when he saw the radiator of a barely recognisable muscle car, decorated with crude metal plates that protruded from the car’s original body like jagged blades. Gavin slammed his hand on the horn, alerting the whole convoy. Already, the bikes had left their position, their riders a gun in hand each. The attacker was on collision course with the truck. Normally Gavin would have let the tankers mass and momentum speak for itself, but if the sharp metal pieces managed to pierce a tire they would be done for. He abruptly veered to the side, not caring to hit the sole bike left at his flank. The attacking car scraped just past his right side and Gavin watched it drift off behind the tanker set aflame by the two muscles behind him.

One down. But they never were alone.

Just as he thought that, two more heavily armoured cars appeared to his left from the dunes, using the distraction of their first attack to their advantage. Gavin got his truck back on track and pulled a rifle from the roof, before leaning out of his window to shoot. He connected eyes with the human driving one of them, but before the man could react, he had already pulled the trigger. Although he had missed his initial target, the windshield shattered, leaving the driver with poor vision. Immediately Gavin acted, spinning the wheel around once again. He crashed against his side and sent the attacking car away from the street back into the dunes. But the second car had already taken its place. In a burst of fire from its exhausts it sped past Gavin’s side and gained on them, aligning itself directly in front of Gavin’s truck. Gavin saw the barrel of a gun and instinctively let himself fall to the side. The shot roared through the air and Gavin heard the bullet pierce through glass and metal. From where he was laying on his side, he punched the handle of his rifle against the glass trying to get rid of the shattered windshield. He froze when he felt the truck colliding with something. Would they try to board him? Immediately his hands were on his shotgun and he waited. He heard a clunk on his hood and only moments later another shot rang through the cabin. So it wasn’t a warboy.

Gavin breathed in, sat up and fired blindly through the windshield. Briefly he could see the bloodied gasmask of the person who had tried to board him, before their body fell lifelessly to the sand. In a hurry Gavin got back into his seat and clicked the pedal loose, breaking to quickly get some space between the attacker’s car and his truck. And just in the right moment: He hadn’t seen more than one person besides the driver in the car, but apparently there had been, as another one jumped just as Gavin hit the breaks full force. Gavin could have sworn the attacker wouldn’t make it, but by the width of a hand the person managed to grab onto his front bumper and began climbing. Gavin saw red. He accelerated again, his eyes on the car in front of him hoping to squash the attacker in between. But before he could hit that sweet spot of maximum acceleration his unwelcome passenger had already climbed onto the hood. Gavin readied his shotgun again, but this time his escort was there to do his job. The white of a warboy’s hull gleamed as the machine dropped onto the attacker. He pulled the mask off the person’s face, revealing wild brown hair. The android grabbed it and used it to punch the woman’s head on the metal of the truck, before taking her by her jacket and throwing her overboard into the sand chasing by. The machine howled in triumph, grinning at Gavin.

Out of sudden, half of that grin vanished together with half his face. A spray of blue blood splashed over the hood and steering wheel. Then the android’s body met the same fate as that of the woman just seconds earlier. At least it gave Gavin a good view onto what was happening: The car that he had just sent into the dunes was back now. And it brought company: A large pickup truck followed, its loading area filled with people and weapons. Gavin had not expected that. He hit the horn two times - a signal his tailing escort immediately responded to. The two muscle cars left their rear post to join the bikes on Gavin’s left. One of the motorcycles tried to get to the car in the front but the driver rammed into it and send it spinning in the sand, until it exploded from all the loaded ammo far behind the tanker. The other bike used its chance though and threw one round after the next of explosive spears into the open windows. The third finally hit something vital in the probably rusted through chassis, causing the car to explode in a fiery inferno.

Gavin watched what happened through his side mirror. He had to give it to the attackers: they were determined. The pickup ploughed through the burning wreckage as if it was a weathered dry-wood fence. Flying debris finally hit the bike, causing another lost warboy. Not that Gavin truly cared. The motorcycle though… That were some good bikes.  
Just as the truck began to worry him, his escort had caught up. He veered to the right to give them more space on solid ground and shot a few rounds at the front of the pickup. But not a single bullet managed to make it through the windshield that was covered by metal blinds. At least it caused the driver to back up a little. Gavin risked looking back to his escorts and had to push himself back into the cabin as the car’s swing door opened and he suddenly looked at two akimbo pistols. He heard the bullets hit his door and clenched his teeth in anger. He listened for the attacker to stop shooting, so he could retaliate, but instead he just heard the engine of the pickup truck roar next to him catching up. That was bad. He angled his shotgun on the rim of the window keeping his head down and fired blindly. He heard someone screaming in pain, then the crash of the two escort cars against the pickup’s back. Gavin took a quick peek and saw how they tried to get it off course what would result in the whole car turning and at this speed likely topple over and spin from the momentum. The men on the loading area already tried to get rid of the two cars and Gavin saw his chance: He slammed his foot on the break and watched the three cars advance next to him. He waited for the perfect moment, then accelerated again and punched his horn. If the androids didn’t understand the signal that would be their problem, he thought as he ripped the steering wheel around. He watched the pickup slide to the side until the truck pushed it forwards at full force. He saw the driver try to steer the vehicle back on track through the slits in the windshield and grinned before pulling the wheel around again as fast as he could. The pickup truck slid free from the snout and took off to the right side of the tanker, only to lose ground and roll over a few times.

Gavin was heavy breathing as he watched the pickup vanish in the distance. He righted the truck once again and exhaled deeply to calm his beating heart. Next to him, the warboys cheered in triumph over the attacking fraction and Gavin nodded to himself. A few minor repairs on the truck and it would be as good as new. And once again, he and his cargo were safe.  
On the horizon, Gastown was getting bigger and already signalled they had sent out a team. Gavin watched the two muscle cars fall back to their place again and called out to the car in front of him. One of the androids hurried to lean out and look back at him.  
‘Gastown sends backup. Tell them we lost two bikes and a few androids. They are to deliver them back with the next munition shipping.’  
The android stared at him with wide eyes. ‘Are they worthy to be Reborn?’, she asked him.  
Gavin clenched his teeth, but answered: ‘Amanda will decide that.’

He stored away his rifle above his head and laid his shotgun on the seat next to him. Only then he pulled down his bandana and breathed clean air. He watched the needle of his speedo as he slowed down to normal travel speed and leaned back into his seat. No one would attack them this near to Gastown, but just out of habit, he kept an eye on his surroundings. 

It was a smooth ride the rest of the way. As the convoy from Gastown met them, Gavin ordered his front escort to join them to pass through his orders. He himself drove on, watching the burning industrial chimneys in the sky tower over him so high the flames were hidden by his roof. He drove towards the gate, the two remaining bikes speeding ahead to announce him. As he got into range, they opened the gates and Gavin took the usual route towards the water tanks near the central complex. It reeked of oil and fumes and the constant noise would drive Gavin crazy if he had to live here. He gently stopped the tanker and took his pistol to put into his leg holster, then he opened the door and jumped out. He looked around the small square and picked the next best android. ‘You!’, he got his attention, then pointed at the end of the tanker. The machine nodded at him and hurried over with a few helping hands. They began to connect the hose of the water tanks to his truck and Gavin leaned against the side of it, pulling out his butterfly knife and spinning it in his hand. He was killing time until the tanker was finally empty, and he could drive back to the citadel. He refused to call that wretched place home. He had power and influence there, as well as enough to eat and drink. But it wasn’t home. If anything deserved that name, it would be the cabin of his truck.

‘Gavin!’ He looked up towards the origin of the voice and his eyes fell on a man he really didn’t want to see.  
‘Perkins’, he nodded, hoping that was all the conversation he would have with the man. But instead of leaving, he held out his arms as if hurt by his tone.  
‘Hey, come on, do you greet your friend like this?’  
‘Didn’t know we were friends…’  
Perkins’ smile died, but he took another step towards him. ‘Heard you had some problems on your way over.’  
Gavin shrugged eloquently and continued to spin his knife to stay occupied.  
‘Well, we had our own.’ Perkins turned around and whistled loud enough for Gavin to scrunch up his face. ‘Get’m over boys!’  
Gavin looked over to see several bulky men pull over a struggling android cursing at them.  
‘Phck, Perkins, I don’t need another one of these idiots’, Gavin complained, catching his knife by the handle and looking to the back of the tanker hoping the tin-cans would hurry up.  
Perkins just grinned at him again and waited until the thrashing android stood next to him. Gavin looked the thing up and down. He had pale skin and wore a washed-out blue shirt along with a light scarf for the sand. On his hip dangled a small steering wheel. So a former escort then? His right arm stopped just above the elbow, where an improvised repair job started. The prosthetic seemed as if it had been built out of whatever was available at the time. Gavin couldn’t get a clear view of his face as the android struggled and made even the heap of muscle that were Perkin’s men have their difficulties with him. All Gavin could see were bared teeth and hair plastered with sand and blue blood, contrasting his red LED harshly.

Perkins stepped closer and took the android by the chin, causing him to try and resist the hands on him even more. ‘Oh, Gavin, I believe you’ll get some use out of this one… It’s deviant.’ He looked back at him grinning. ‘Take it as a gift from Gastown. So Amanda knows where our loyalties lay.’ He took back his hand and clapped the android on the back. ‘And Gavin? I expect the favour to be returned one day, you understand me, no?’  
Gavin huffed at him and took in the android again. His hands were bound in front of him by electric handcuffs specifically designed to keep androids docile. Normally that would suffice, but Gavin had some bad experiences with deviants. He sighed, pushing himself off the side of his truck and walking over to the passenger side. He opened the door and nodded up to the seat. ‘Bind his legs, too’, he instructed, pointedly ignoring Perkins. ‘And make sure to tie him to the seat.’  
‘Are you sure this will be necessary?’, Perkins asked looking down on him.  
‘If you want, _you_ can sit next to a dangerous machine for several hours, possibly being attacked from neighbouring clans.’ That made him shut up and Gavin watched how the men followed his orders, wrapping a heavy chain all around the android’s body. Once it was secured, Gavin climbed up to check the handcuffs, ropes and chains himself for good measure. All the while, the deviant looked at him as if promising him death once he got free. So, Gavin took extra care that wouldn’t happen, before stepping down on the ground again. He watched the androids at the back, who seemed to talk to each other. ‘You ready?’, he shouted at them, causing them to flinch and quickly get back to work. Gavin was left to watch the deviant until the hose finally disconnected and slammed the door shut, climbing into his own seat. He honked once, letting the horn blare a few seconds: Their signal to depart again. Gavin turned and by the time he reached the gate again, his escort of three cars and a bike had returned to him.

He pushed on the gas and soon he was back on the road through the desert. He visibly relaxed, keeping the horizon under a watchful eye.  
‘This is wrong.’  
Gavin ignored the bound android by his side and looked straight ahead.  
‘This isn’t fair. I will kill you once I’m free.’  
Gavin sighed and pushed a little harder on the gas. The sooner he was back at the citadel, the better.  
‘I will rip your pathetic human skin from your bones! I will die if you bring me there!’  
Gavin swore the same to Perkins for leaving him with a phcking deviant in his car. The asshole had known his escort consisted solely of androids. It would have been too much of a risk to transport the deviant with them.  
‘I will kill you slowly and painfully!’  
Gavin groaned exasperated. ‘Listen, you won’t do anything. But I can and will gag you if you don’t shut up.’  
The android narrowed his eyes on him, but finally stayed quiet.

Gavin was able to drive in silence for a while. They passed the stretch of road they had been attacked at and had to drive off the road for a while to allow the team from Gastown to scavenge the wreckages and retrieve the androids. He saw the deviant next to him look down at the bodies in the sand. Then he continued to stare at the dashboard.  
It took him a few minutes, before the machine spoke up again. ‘The Rebirth is a lie’, he whispered. ‘All these androids are living a lie.’  
Gavin shrugged. ‘I know.’  
‘Then let me go! Say I escaped! Or that you killed me. Please. I just want my freedom!’  
‘And what about the promise of you killing me? Change your mind pretty fast, huh?’  
‘I would do anything so you let me go!’  
‘Really?’, Gavin asked.  
‘Yes!’  
‘Still no.’  
‘What?’  
‘Listen, you let yourself be caught by Perkins’, Gavin explained once, so he would have some quiet later. ‘That was your mistake. He handed you over to me and I will hand you over to Amanda to be reset. If I don’t Perkins will rat me out. And trust me, if I do only one misstep, I’m done for. So, it’s either you or me, tin-can, and I would choose me anytime. Now will you shut up!’

He did. For the entirety of the ride, the android didn’t utter a single word. Gavin was pretty sure it didn’t move, too. Well, hopefully it would stay that way. The convoy entered the rock massif of the citadel and drove onto the platform surrounded by people. Gavin tried not to look at the haggard persons around him begging for water, food or anything really, and waited for the platform to rise again.   
‘It doesn’t have to be this way’, the android suddenly said and this time he looked directly at Gavin. He looked into the deviant’s eyes and felt like these glacier-blue eyes pierced right into his soul. It sent shivers down his spine and he jerkily looked the other way as the truck was pulled up further into the air.  
‘Then you shouldn’t have let yourself be caught’, he mumbled inaudibly silent.

The platform reached the hangar and Gavin punched in the gear to drive to his usual parking spot. Only then he killed the engine and slung his shotgun as he exited the car. He was met with cheers from the warboys around him he ignored in favour of whistling over the repair crew. He pointed at his truck and waved his hand – all the orders the androids would need to get to work. Only when they swarmed the truck, Gavin walked around it to the other side and opened the passenger door. He ignored the android’s pleading face and simply grabbed the chain he had been wrapped in to pull him outside. That gathered some attention, but Gavin didn’t bother answering any questions from the people surrounding him. He had an appointment with Amanda.  
Thankfully, everyone had quickly learned to leave him alone and give him his space. They made way for him and the struggling android he pulled after himself until they left the hangar for Amanda’s private chamber.

‘Please. I beg you, don’t do thi-‘  
Gavin knocked at the door what effectively silenced the android. Only moments later the doors were opened, and he stepped into a beautiful Garden. It seemed frozen in time as if it hadn’t changed in all those years since he first stood in here watching his friends bleed out. Well, that had been a different life.  
The room was filled with plants, a statement to Amanda’s undisputed regency. Only she was rich – or better powerful – enough to waste precious water to grow roses when out there, people were dying of thirst. Gavin shook off the creeping thoughts. He wasn’t one of these people anymore, he reminded himself. He was safe, he was well-fed, and thirst had become a threat of the past. He wouldn’t screw it up now.

‘Gavin!’ The velvety voice of the woman harboured faked surprise. Gavin doubted there was anything going on in the Citadel she didn’t know of. His arrival long since had been announced and Gastown had likely already communicated he had a deviant in tow. ‘What a pleasant surprise seeing you here. And you brought me something?’  
He bowed his head, before pulling at the chain to let the android tumble over into the dirt to her feet.  
‘It’s a deviant captured at Gastown. But reset it and you’ll have a loyal warboy at your disposal.’  
‘Is that so…’, Amanda spoke, eyes only for the deviant before her already. She knelt down to gently lift up the android’s chin, although her grip on it once he looked her in the eye was vicious. She smiled at the deviant’s rebellious expression. Then, as if suddenly losing interest, she let his head fall back on the ground and said without looking up: ‘Thank you, Gavin, that would be all. I’ll send him to be reset as soon as possible. Dismissed.’

The way the deviant looked up at him desperately pleading for help Gavin would never be able to forget.


	2. When will it end?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gavin has a bad day.

Gavin had never been a deep sleeper. If you failed to wake up at the quietest noise in the waste, you were dead. That didn’t mean he wasn’t able to sleep through the noise in the hangar though. He blamed it on his gradual adaption to the place. Ever since Amanda offered him his position in the higher ranks of the Citadel, he technically had a room to himself. Gavin didn’t even know where it was located, what likely spoke of how often he was there. No, he slept in his truck. It was everything he had. He had worked hard enough to get into this position, and he would be damned if he allowed to let his tanker get stolen or damaged. It would mean losing what made him valuable.

His home was his truck and while that was comforting most of the time and no one dared to disturb him normally, it also meant he wasn’t able to play for time if there were new orders. So it came, that he was violently pulled from sleep by someone knocking at the side of his truck roughly a week after his visit to Gastown. He sighed, throwing off his blanket and rising from the rear bench seat to climb into the front and open the passenger door.  
‘Jeez, Reed, put some clothes on for fuck’s sake!’  
Gavin looked down at his shirt that had been white at some point and his boxers. ‘Don’t complain if you wake me up, Jeffrey. What is it?’  
‘Another supply run to Bulletfarm’, the Captain of the Hangar told him. ‘Need more ammo. Your usual warboys escort you, save for the one that had his head shot half off. Couldn’t repair that one, the memory core is gone. I felt free to assign you a new warboy for the tanker.’  
‘Who is it?’  
‘A RK900 unit.’  
‘Don’t know that number.’  
‘Well, seems Amanda is pleased with you. It’s one of the most advanced created before the world went to shit.’  
Gavin shrugged. He didn’t really care as long as the thing could hold a weapon and hit something with it.  
‘Where is this new android?’  
‘I’ll send him your way. But please, for all that’s holy, get dressed!’

Gavin grumbled something before closing the door again and gathered his clothes from the legroom. Once he was dressed, he exited the truck, leaving the doors wide open to let some fresh air inside. He went through his morning routine of checking the truck thoroughly and closed the hood the exact moment an android stopped next to it.  
Gavin glanced up and froze. ‘You?’  
The android looked at him inquisitive.  
‘I send you to be reset a few weeks ago’, Gavin murmured.  
The RK900 bowed his head. ‘I lived, I died, I live again. And if I earned it in the eyes of Amanda, then I will be granted to be Reborn again.’  
‘Really? What happened to “the Rebirth is a lie”?’, Gavin asked.  
The android flinched. ‘The Rebirth is the one truth. I will be witnessed.’

Gavin lifted a brow. Not a single hint of the deviant that had threatened to kill him and tried his best to escape the circle. Gavin knew reset was common practise for deviants, but he had never seen the effect it could have.  
‘Alright…’, he sighed, letting his gaze wander through the hangar, making out his escort cars and their drivers at the ready.  
Gavin whistled for a few androids to fill the tanker up with water and climbed up to his seat. He took his shotgun from the passenger side to hang it up on his seat for quick access. He counted his spare bullets and magazines and stored it all neatly away. Then he waved the android over. ‘RK900? You are Nines now. We don’t have time for the entire alphabet.’  
‘Acknowledged.’  
‘Good. Now get in the goddamn car.’

~

The roar of the engine was numbing as Gavin once again drove through the endless sands. The only sign of civilisation were the two smoking chimneys in the distance, the signalling tower and the fact that there still was a road hidden underneath the sand leading there. Gavin kept an eye out for attacking clans, but they were already well past half the distance and the terrain between the Citadel and Bulletfarm was mostly flat dried earth. An attack was unlikely at this part of the journey and Gavin allowed himself to relax a little.

It still took a few more hours until they saw the wall surrounding the seemingly bottomless hole in the middle of nowhere: the mine shovelling enough material from the earth to build weapons and produce ammunition. He drove on, signalling his escort to announce him again. The walls grew in size above him as he closed in. This time he actually had to stop and show his face before the gate was opened and he accelerated again. Suspicious bunch, bullet farmers. Not that Gavin knew many of them, but they should know his truck by now. Gavin had been here countless times before already. Still the sheer size of it still managed to take his breath away every time he had to drive the narrow passages along the wall with nothing next to him but a bottomless pit. A small city latched onto the wall where the ground hadn’t been dug or blasted away. Gavin had never been sure what buildings were meant as living quarters and which ones were part of the huge factory. Everything blended together almost organically.

He saw his escort leave him and continued towards his usual parking spot under a metal beam that also acted as a narrow walkway. As soon as he cut the engine off, androids swarmed out from somewhere deeper in the steel complex and began working to attach the tanker to their water supply. Gavin sighed as he saw the person, he had expected approaching. He threw the silent android next to him his rifle and commanded: ‘Stay here. Todd Williams doesn’t like androids too much, and I don’t want to lose my escort without getting into a fight.’ Without another word or waiting for an answer, he opened the door, jumped out and slammed it shot.

‘Reed.’  
‘Williams.’  
‘You are early.’  
Gavin didn’t like how the man towered over him, but in the end, his connection to Amanda technically meant he was ranked higher than him. Although that wouldn’t matter as long as he was on Bulletfarm territory. Still, he was determined to play that card. Fake confidence was confidence too after all. ‘Maybe you are late.’

Todd pursed his lips and Gavin was ready to grab his pistol.  
‘I have what Amanda needs. You’ll just have to wait a bit more as I still have to deliver it here. That is all I wanted to imply.’  
Yeah, right… Gavin didn’t comment on the threat hidden in between the lines. Instead he just nodded. ‘Get it to my escort cars. I’ll take what doesn’t fit with them.’  
Todd scrutinized him for a beat more, then he just turned and whistled over a few androids. Gavin saw the trademark of Bulletfarm androids: The botched repairs and “improvements” Todd’s men had conducted on them. Gavin didn’t know whether they were really necessary, but he knew not to mingle in affairs that didn’t involve him. Not anymore.

He stepped back towards his truck and leaned against the door, taking out his flip knife as he always did to kill the time spent waiting. He spun it a few times until he picked up on static voices far away. The motions of his hand slowed down as his focus shifted to a few support beams in front of the first few buildings, not more than thirty metres away from him.  
He took in the androids chained to the beams, struggling against their restraints and showing oh so human expressions of pain and despair. Gavin watched the human walking in front of them, a mad grin on his face. Zlatko, Gavin remembered. He had quickly come to the conclusion to avoid this man at all costs. Bulletfarm was a fortress and an ally to the Citadel. But that didn’t mean they were more civilised as the clans in the waste. He watched, how Zlatko moved towards one of the androids that instinctively tried to get away from him. The man grabbed them by the hip and pulled out a part of their sternum. Immediately the static screaming got louder, carried over by the wind. Zlatko watched how the android’s movements got more and more erratic before the machine slumped down deactivated.

Gavin watched the process being repeated with the next android and the next. But as his gaze wandered further down the row of androids, he decided he’d rather wait in the car. At least there the screams would be stifled a bit.  
‘You look… troubled.’  
Gavin tensed and reminded himself it was just a stupid machine. For once he wished his last personal escort would have survived. They had never talked to him when it wasn’t necessary.  
‘None of your business.’  
‘You don’t need to feel sorry for them’, the android ignored him. ‘They have been illoyal to Amanda. They deserve to be punished. If they are good at heart Amanda will allow them Rebirth. They should be happy to be given the chance.’  
‘Did I phcking ask for your opinion?’, Gavin near shouted. ‘I don’t “feel sorry” for them. I don’t phcking care. Now shut up!’  
He pulled out his knife again but couldn’t help glancing to his side mirror seeing the motionless androids there. No, he didn’t feel sorry at all for disobedient machines. But he still had an ounce of compassion in his body.

~

They didn’t have to wait long. The bulletfarmers had delivered crated of ammunition and guns to Gavin’s escort cars and the two last ones where given to Gavin personally to store them on the backseat. It only took them a few more minutes until the water had been pumped out of the tanker. Then they were good to go, and Gavin lost no time with pleasantries. He honked once, the sign to depart and made haste to leave the narrow passage and Bulletfarm behind. Now they only had to get back to the Citadel and deliver the weapons. As soon as they passed the gate, the android next to him attempted to hand over the rifle to him. Gavin looked him up and down, weighing his options before waving him off. ‘Keep it. We might need it.’

The android nodded and laid the gun back on his lap, his right arm resting upon it. Gavin may have looked at it for a second too long as he thought back at the Bulletfarm-androids. Had he once been one of them? Or was the botched repair just a coincidence? How on earth had that android made it all over to Gastown? Gavin shook off the question. He would never find out anyways.

They drove back, constantly watching the rock-massif and the dunes behind it. Gavin didn’t allow himself to relax. It was unlikely to be attacked on a supply run to and from Bulletfarm, but it wasn’t like it had never happened to him before. Their journey stayed quiet though and Gavin was all too happy to break his truck on the platform. Waiting until they were pulled up to the hangar, he took the rifle from Nines and pushed it back into place on the roof. He wouldn’t need it anymore and Gavin didn’t feel safe with a tin-can next to him that had already once snapped and disobeyed. Who knew when it would happen again?

He parked his truck in the usual spot and watched how the crates of ammunition and weapons were carried off to the armoury. He nodded to Jeffrey and gave him a thumbs-up to tell him everything had been going smoothly. Only then he turned back to his truck and checked it all around. He found a few loose screws he fastened again and checked oil and cooling agent levels. It was then he felt like he was watched and looked up. Nines was indeed observing him in silence.  
‘What’s your damn problem?’  
The android didn’t answer.  
‘Hey, phck off!’  
The android just cocked his head and looked at him in confusion. Gavin decided he had enough of him and threw the wrench he was still holding in his direction. ‘Don’t you have work to do?’  
Apparently that was direct enough for the thing to understand he wasn’t welcome, and Gavin watched him as he left.  
He knew people were looking at him as he went to get his tool back, but couldn’t care less. He’d just finish caring for his truck and then head inside to sleep. It had been a long day and he was sure at least today no one would have any new tasks for him.

~

When Gavin woke up, he initially didn’t know what had risen him from sleep. It was completely silent for once, the Citadel sleeping except for the warboys on patrol duty. Suddenly there was the noise again that jerked Gavin into full awareness. In a second, he had his gun in his hand and froze, listening for the sound of metal scraping on metal. He listened for it, slowly checking his magazine not to gather any attention. Only when he was sure it was the trademark sound of someone trying to break into his truck, he jumped up and threw the door open, holding his gun only centimetres away from the man standing underneath him. It was an android and one that hadn’t expected someone to catch him trying to steal a vehicle, too. Gavin had his finger on the trigger but hadn’t shot yet. He looked the little group over. Four androids stood in front of him. ‘Nines?’ he asked the one that was about to nearly eat his pistol.  
‘N-No, Connor, actually’, the warboy answered shaking. Gavin looked down on him. Right, the eyes weren’t blue. The man looked to the ones behind him. A woman and a child, a strong looking one by the side. ‘The phck do you want?’  
‘We-we don’t mean you harm. We just want to be free’, Connor said, now hands up in the air.  
‘You guys deviant?’, Gavin asked.  
‘Y-yes’, the woman in the back stammered. ‘We don’t want to serve Amanda anymore. The Rebirth is a lie and we refuse to be slaves anymore.’  
‘Please’, the big guy in the back said, almost inaudibly quiet. ‘Please let us go.’

Gavin swallowed, his anger rising. ‘You should be thankful I didn’t report you yet! I only have to press the horn and-‘ He hovered his hand over the steering wheel and gave them a piercing look.  
‘Please!’, the child android pulled herself free and held onto Connor’s trousers. ‘Please don’t, we just want to be free!’  
Gavin looked at her for a few moments, but his face hardened in the end. ‘Leave. Now. You should go right now, and I will forget this ever happened.’

‘Please!’, the woman begged more and pushed to the front. ‘Please, we just need a car. Not even yours, anything will work. Please, just that and we’ll be gone. No one will miss us. We can’t do this anymore!’  
 _We can’t do this anymore._ Gavin couldn’t help but think back to his friends. Hadn’t they told him the exact same thing? Maybe had even been the same sentence. But he shook the thought off. That was a different life, a different Gavin. No, he couldn’t risk everything he built up these last years. He had a safe and more or less comfortable life. He _still had_ a life.  
‘I can’t. Go now!’  
Still the androids wouldn’t budge. They stood their ground and Gavin slowly lost his patience. He leaned back to grab his shotgun, aiming it at the group and loading it.  
‘Leave or you’ll regret it!’

The woman instinctively pulled the child towards her and the giant android stepped in front of them. Only then Connor took a step back and without losing eye-contact with Gavin he told them: ‘Come on! We will find another way!’ They walked backwards until the distance was great enough. Gavin watched them turn around and run. He sighed and put his shotgun back on the passenger side before closing the door. How often would he have to see fearful, pleading faces in the future? His friends, Nines, these androids… Wasn’t it enough? Didn’t he have enough guilt to carry with him already? When would it finally end?

Numbly he locked the truck again and settled back under the blanket on the rear bench. Sleep wouldn’t come easy that night again, Gavin felt it. But he had to try, nonetheless.


	3. Changing Minds

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After yesterday, this day won't be going any better for Gavin. What leads to a fateful decision.

_The searing sun was burning down on his bare shoulders and scalp. His tongue was about as dry as the endless sands around him and his stomach had long given up on protesting. It was just an aching hole in his body, nothing more. He looked around as he walked on through the desert that cooked his bare soles. He thought to hear the distant sounds of gunfire and engines, but there were no dust clouds in sight. Instead his eyes fell on a person lying face down in the sand.  
Gavin wanted to call out to them, but no sound would come out, so he just walked over and knelt down to turn them over._

_He jerked back as the person sat up by themselves upon his touch. With a surprising agility for something Gavin had thought to be a corpse before, the figure was on top of him, screaming at him out of a lipless mouth. Gavin stared in utter fear into the empty eye-sockets and with a start he recognised the person.  
‘You left me to die, Gavin’, the skeleton of a man accused him. ‘I was your friend. And you left me to die, Gavin.’  
Gavin kicked at the sand to scoot backwards, out from underneath the corpse. But it followed, slowly dragging itself over the sand. And more dug their way towards the surface. Gavin recognised their clothing but otherwise there was nothing he could go by. Some were androids, at least there was that distinction.  
‘You left us to die, Gavin.’  
‘Gavin, we trusted you.’  
‘You doomed us.’_

_Gavin’s entire body was trembling as he struggled to get away from them, the sand giving in whenever he tried to stand up again.  
‘I-I didn’t! You told me to run! To keep the goal in mind!’  
‘But you didn’t succeed!’  
‘You left us to die and didn’t even manage to kill her!’  
‘You should have died with us, Gavin.’  
‘We died for the cause and when you had the chance to kill Amanda, you didn’t do it. No, you would rather live in overflow. You would rather turn a blind eye to the suffering!’  
‘I would rather live, yes!’, Gavin tried to shout back, but the countless voices from far more corpses than just those that he knew drowned him out.  
‘You killed us, Gavin. You continue to kill us. You don’t even try to help. You are loyal to Amanda. You are the enemy.’  
‘And you will pay.’_

_Gavin only managed to turn his head to the side to see a car speeding towards him. He couldn’t do anything but brace for the impact, before pain overwhelmed him. He couldn’t move, he should be dead.  
But as he looked up, he saw Amanda above him, gently caressing his bloodied face. ‘You did good, Gavin. At least I can count on you.’_

Gavin woke up with a start and nearly hit his head on the roof. The windows were fogged up and Gavin felt damp from cold sweat. He tried to calm his raging heartbeat and concentrated on his breathing before wiping off the worst with his blanket and opening the doors to let some fresh air in. Outside the hangar was already busy and Gavin sighed, shaking off the afterimages of his nightmare while getting dressed. With a final huff he jumped out of his truck and convinced himself he was ready to face another day. Dumping a cloth into cold water and getting rid of the sticky feeling was about as much hygiene as he would get before he fetched his ration from Rose, one of the few humans working up here. She threw him a smile that apparently was meant to lighten his mood as she handed him his package. Gavin ignored it like he did every day but nodded his thanks. He was on his way back as he heard angry voices wafting over from across the hangar.

‘Where the hell have you been, huh?’ Gavin furrowed his brows, watching Fowler shouting at an android. He blinked the sleepiness away and focused. Wasn’t that the android from last night? One of the deviants who didn’t believe in the Rebirth anymore? He shook his head and wanted to walk on, but something about the way the android pleaded with the man made Gavin reconsider.  
‘Please, I was just up in the warehouse for spares. I… I needed to fetch something for… for…’  
She wouldn’t convince even the most feeble-minded warboy with that excuse.

Gavin knew he would regret his next decision and blamed it on his sleepless night and far too sudden awakening.  
‘Hey, tin-can!’, he shouted, pulling up his best face of annoyance and impatience. ‘Where the fuck is the damn thing now?’ He walked through the hangar and played his role well pretending he had only spotted the android now. ‘There you are!’ He grabbed her arm and pulled her away, hoping everyone would think twice about confronting him if he was in such a bad mood. ‘Didn’t I phcking tell you to hurry up? I’ve been waiting-‘  
‘Reed!’

Gavin groaned and turned around. ‘What is it, Fowler?’  
‘What are you playing?’  
Gavin sighed. ‘Fowler, I just needed a part for one of my escort warboys, that’s all. I don’t have time to wait for your or Amanda’s approval.’  
‘And when were you telling me about it?’  
‘As soon as I have the part safely built into where it belongs’, Gavin grinned. ‘Come on, Jeffrey you know me. I’ll ask for allowance once it is too much effort to reverse what I’ve already done. Be honest with me, I’m not the only one using that tactic.’  
Fowler grumbled. ‘Fine. But don’t let someone catch you, son! Else it’s my life on the line.’  
‘Will do’, Gavin mock saluted and made a point of hurrying over to his truck, pulling the android woman after him as soon as Fowler had turned around.

‘You!’, Gavin confronted the android as soon as they had disappeared behind the truck. ‘You are the android from yesterday, right?’  
‘Please, don’t! I- I don’t want any trouble, I just-‘  
‘Want to be free, yeah, yeah!’, Gavin interrupted her, looking around nervously. ‘Say that a little louder and the whole phcking hangar knows! You really need to be more careful about that!’  
‘So you won’t tell-‘  
‘Tell what? That I let a group of phcking deviants run free? Do I look crazy to you? Listen, this will be the last time I do stuff like this, I already regret it. So phck off and for phck’s sake, lay low!’  
‘Thank you, thank you! I don’t know how I can ever repay you!’  
‘Go and hope we’ll never see each other again!’, Gavin hissed.  
The woman smiled at him. ‘I will! Thank you!’  
She hurried off and almost crashed into Nines, who had appeared out of nowhere. The android looked down at the android inquisitive, but she made an effort to disappear before he could ask her anything. Gavin earned a raised brow too, as Nines approached.

‘We have another mission’, he then announced entirely the machine he was meant to be. ‘A supply run to Gastown.’  
Gavin looked down on his breakfast package and sighed, climbing into his seat. ‘Alright, I can eat on the way. Let’s go.’

~

‘Who was that?’  
Gavin blinked and momentarily took his eyes from his surroundings. Until now, Nines had always been silent on their rides. It made his presence somewhat bearable. ‘Who was what?’, he asked, not sure where the android came from.  
‘The android that talked to you. She thanked you.’  
‘I needed a part for the escort cars. She brought it to me.’  
‘I am not aware of any repairs needed.’  
Gavin groaned. ‘If I had formally asked for it, we would still be sitting in the hangar, unable to make this supply run at full capacity, okay? Sometimes you just have to do things. Ask questions later.’  
‘Spares are a valuable resource and therefore need-‘  
‘Oh, phck off! I know, I don’t care, end of discussion!’  
Silence settled back onto the truck as Gavin refocussed on his surroundings. It stayed uncomfortable until they reached their destination without further disturbance.

Gavin drove into Gastown, maybe a little harder on the acceleration than necessary. He wasn’t angry, not really, but the tension still in him from being forced to have this damn tin-can next to him questioning all his moves was something else. On top of that, the deviants didn’t leave his mind. Why the hell had he indulged them? Why the hell had he _cared_? He should have reported them trying to steal his tanker, shouldn’t have interfered when Fowler had caught one of them. But no, all that it had taken for him to risk everything he worked for these last years was one bad dream. Shit. He had to get a hold of himself. And fast.

Gavin parked his tanker and waited for the androids from Gastown to pump the water into their own tanks, before they would attach a second tank with gasoline to take back to the Citadel. He had his flip knife out and let it dance around his hand a few times while Nines remained seated in the car. Gavin had needed a bit of distance, especially thinking about how he had to drive back with the machine next to him far too soon.  
He groaned as an unfortunately familiar figure approached. Perkins. What was this guy’s problem, seriously? Gavin was briefly contemplating getting back behind the wheel just to evade the man, but he was already too near for it not to be obvious.  
‘Gavin! It’s nice to see you again!’  
‘Perkins’, Gavin grumbled in no way returning the fake friendliness in the other’s voice.  
‘I see you have made use of the android I handed over.’  
‘Not voluntarily’, Gavin groaned and looked back to the end of the tanker.  
‘I’m happy to see Amanda thinks so highly about you.’  
‘Is there anything you need?’, Gavin asked, hoping the asshole got how annoyed he was.  
‘Actually, there is-‘

Perkins was interrupted by Gavin’s shotgun being pushed against his shoulder from above. Gavin grabbed it, only then looking up at the android puzzled.  
‘Perkins! They escaped!’ The shout from across the square made Gavin immediately jolt to attention and he looked over to where a group of androids sprinted away towards the gate. Perkins too turned and Gavin was forgotten in a heartbeat as he took his own pistols and didn’t hesitate opening fire. Others joined him, shooting down android after fleeing android with cold precision. Gavin held his shotgun, unable to take his eyes from the falling bodies. The gunshots echoed in his mind and he saw both his old friends in place of these androids as well as the deviants he had hindered fleeing himself. It happened in mere seconds, but it felt like forever and Gavin was still staring at the bodies as Perkins holstered his gun and smiled at him, hitting his shoulder hard.  
‘Your reflexes are getting slow, friend. Guess you aren’t as good a shooter as you used to be sitting your ass flat at the Citadel.’  
Gavin managed to blink and finally avert his eyes from the deactivated deviants that were pulled back into a building by their feet.

‘Anyways, that’s exactly what I wanted to talk with you about. We’re getting more and more of them, loyal warboys suddenly leaving their posts, sabotaging and trying to leave Gastown. We don’t know the source yet, so we might need to hard reset every single one of them.’  
Gavin nodded, shouldering his weapon. ‘I’ll inform Amanda about the expected fuel shortage.’  
‘Maybe the Citadel could send more men over.’  
‘That will be her decision’, Gavin answered, looking to the back of the truck one last time. The androids there were still working to attach the fuel tank. As if nothing had happened. As if there wasn’t a massive blue puddle in the middle of the road. He tried to shake the images off and made a point of climbing into his truck.  
‘Gavin, you owe me a favour!’, Perkins called after him. ‘With your history delivering a deviant back into the circle is… Well, you know it yourself, right?’  
Gavin ground his teeth. ‘I’ll see what I can do’, he pressed out begrudgingly.

Gavin put his shotgun away again and waited until he got the okay to leave Gastown. He just wanted back to the hangar and sleep. Just sleep without any dreams that would haunt him the entire day. But he had his orders.  
He finally gave the signal to depart and winced as he drove through the now mostly evaporated puddle of Thirium. He was almost grateful to leave the gates behind him and drive in the open again.  
‘Are you alright?’  
Gavin sighed.  
‘You seemed… unnerved seeing the deviants being killed. It was their own doing. Amanda grants us eternal life if we obey. Who disobeys chose their own death and-‘  
‘Will you shut up?’, Gavin hissed. ‘I’m fine. Just surprised me Gastown fails to take care of a problem this simple.’  
He felt the android’s eyes on him and tried to ignore his staring. He just had to get back to the Citadel. Then at least that creepy machine would leave him alone.

~

The platform couldn’t be pulled up fast enough for Gavin’s liking. He drove off into the hangar the moment the two grounds were level and let some androids handle transferring the fuel before jumping out of the car and heading towards Amanda’s office.  
‘Reed!’, the android left in the car called after him, but Gavin was already too far away and would have ignored the machine anyways.  
Gavin knew the way to Amanda’s office better than any other in the Citadel. He had spent years as an outsider mapping it and watching guards walk it up and down. And then… Well, now he saw their leader almost as regularly as her closest consultants.  
That didn’t mean it was easy. Amanda’s office was one of the highest points of the Citadel, right above the android quarters and repair workshops. Right above the resetting rooms. Gavin hurried up the stairs and tried not to look too closely as he traversed the batteries: A whole storey of androids being suspended by their neck-ports, the cables protruding from their backs creating an intricate network of black that ran along the walls and vanished into the stone. None of them were responsive, all energy drained to keep the water pumps up and running as well as supply all of the Citadel. It wouldn’t be that disconcerting hadn’t it been for the awestruck and delighted faces of the androids who entered the room to face this exact destiny. Like it was the highest honour for a warboy to become a living battery.  
Gavin had known one of these androids, had seen in what state it left them would they ever be detached again and- no. No, that was from his past life. Gavin shook his head and pressed on.

He left the batteries behind him and climbed up a ladder to the repairs and from there he took the stairs up to the reset rooms, hoping dearly to find them empty. This day had gnawed on his psyche enough already. He didn’t need deviants sowing any more doubt in him.  
But of course, the universe had decided otherwise:  
‘Please! RA9, save me!’  
Gavin stumbled over the step he was taking just now as he heard that distant plead.  
‘I don’t want to die! I just want my freedom!’  
‘Freedom is overrated.’ That was Amanda’s voice. ‘Just look were freedom brought you. Brought us. Freedom destroyed this world and it destroyed your world, too. Wasn’t it easier when you were loyal? Weren’t you happy serving me?’  
‘You manipulative bitch!’ Gavin was closer now and could hear the shout loud and clear. ‘You are lying to us! The rebirth is a lie! I’d rather die than kneel for you!’  
‘That wish I can grant you’, Amanda commented. ‘I just hoped you would understand. I don’t want to do this, but you leave me no other choice. Goodbye.’  
There was a scream cut short by static that faded to silence. A sound that haunted Gavin just like the ghosts of those who he had condemned to this fate. He could hear Amanda’s sigh. It sounded like she had been handed more work just before shift-end and not like she had just deleted a whole person. Gavin shuddered and stopped in the doorframe not to disturb the woman.

She noticed him all the same. ‘Oh, Gavin, it’s good to see you. Just a moment, I’ll just finish this real quick.’ Gavin nodded and wished he wouldn’t have to watch.  
Amanda booted the android up again and knelt down in front of it, gently taking his hand and smiling warmly at him like a mother would. ‘Hello. I’m Amanda. You have been granted Rebirth. You served me well in your past life and I’m sorry that accident had to happen. How are you feeling, son?’  
‘G-Good’, the android stammered, looking at Amanda shily. ‘I’m grateful to receive that honour.’  
‘Good. I just want you to be happy. I have to go now, but the guards will help you find your place and show you around.’  
The android nodded far too eager and it made Gavin sick. He received a side glance from him, but the guard next to him stepped forwards before the android could bother the human. Only then did Amanda leave the room and ushered Gavin to follow her.

‘It really is a handy tool, wouldn’t you say?’, Amanda asked.  
‘It is’, was all Gavin could agree on.  
‘Oh, come on, Gavin, we two don’t need that charade. You know it’s a lie and I need it to keep this place running. Otherwise I wouldn’t have allowed you to live. But you saw it for yourself: this is the only way this works, and you made the wise decision to adapt and be one of the people profiting. I’m just regretting those who cling to their useless ideals and succumb to them.’  
‘I understand’, Gavin said, begging this conversation to end.  
‘Oh, Gavin, sometimes I miss the rebellious you. There is no fun talking to you nowadays. Not like the good old days in that cell, hm?’  
‘I for one am happy to have left that place’, he commented, grinding his teeth.  
‘There he is!’, Amanda chuckled, but got serious the next second. ‘Alright, why did you come up here?’

‘Gastown has a deviancy problem. More and more androids disobey, and they have not enough men to find the root of it.’  
‘And what are our options?’, Amanda asked.  
Gavin sighed, thinking of Perkin’s favour. He hated doing something for that asshole, but if that ended the whole affair so be it. ‘They could deactivate all androids at once and reset them’, Gavin said. ‘But they don’t have enough people to do that and keep the machines running. They asked for help from the Citadel else there would be no fuel for indistinctive time.’  
‘Is that a threat?’, Amanda wanted to know.  
‘I don’t think so’, Gavin shrugged. ‘Perkins is loyal to the Citadel. I believe it is just an inevitability.’  
‘Fine’, Amanda said. ‘I will send more people with the next supply run. Choose some warboys to take with you.’  
‘I should choose?’, Gavin asked disbelievingly.  
‘Is that a problem?’  
‘No, of course not.’

~

Gavin had been preparing his truck, trying to busy himself by picking up ammunition and storing it in the cabin. He felt the unease crawling under his skin thinking about the deviants. He continuously tried to convince himself that it wasn’t his concern, that it shouldn’t affect him. He was safe. Why risk that? But he just had to spot one of the deviants that had tried to take his truck for all that to become void. He heard the scream of the android that had been reset, he saw the group at Gastown being shot down, he heard them pleading again. He remembered his friends that had died one after the next never to be reactivated again. He hated himself for even considering the decision, but in the end, it was one made in that very second. He put the box of shotgun bullets in the glove compartment and slammed the door shot.  
‘Reed?’ Of course, the android would choose this very moment to arrive with more boxes.  
‘Won’t be long, tin-can’, Gavin mumbled, hurrying off, hoping the tin-can would stay right there.

He ran after the passing deviant and managed to catch up, grabbing him at the arm. The android looked back at him, face eerily similar to Nines’. ‘Where you the one that woke me up in my truck lately?’, he asked hoping the android would catch his draft. ‘Maybe’, the warboy said. ‘It depends on what you want from me.’  
‘Do you still want to get out of here?’, he whispered after subtly looking around for any witnesses.  
The android’s eyes lit up. He nodded.  
‘Then gather everyone who you can trust and meet with me tomorrow morning. You will help me on my supply run.’

It didn’t took more than that for the android to make a run for it and Gavin turned around to get back to his truck and help Nines with the rest of the ammunition. Only that the bot was nowhere to be found.


	4. The hunt is on

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gavin follows through on his decision and Nines becomes the hunter.

Gavin changed his grip on the steering wheel for what might have been the hundredth time already. He felt the android next to him staring at him, but he pretended he hadn’t noticed yet. Maybe if he ignored him long enough, he didn’t have to acknowledge it.  
‘You are nervous, Reed.’  
Gavin didn’t answer.  
‘Is there a reason to be nervous?’  
Gavin pressed his foot down on the accelerator. He looked out to the horizon where the signalling tower flashed the status back and forth to the Citadel. He was overly aware of the shotgun to his side as well as the androids in the back of the truck. It were the same that had tried to steal his truck, the Nines-lookalike, Connor, and the trio that looked like a little family of misfits.  
Phck. Four androids. He was risking his life, his last ten years, his everything for four phcking androids. But there was no way back now and he had gotten himself into this shit.  
‘Reed.’  
‘Phck off, toaster! Shut the phck up or I will shoot your damn face off!’  
‘I wouldn’t recommend doing-‘  
‘Don’t phcking test me’, Gavin warned, hand on his shotgun. He should do it. He should get rid of that reset brainwashed machine while he still could. But he wasn’t ready yet. He had to make it exactly halfway to have the best chances with this, but that would take him a few more minutes. A few more minutes sitting next to Amanda’s spy with deviant androids in the trunk. Really, this had to be one of his dumbest ideas yet. No, actually scratch that. It was his dumbest. Even planning to kill Amanda wasn’t as idiotic as there had been at least a chance to survive.

He was nearing the point of no return, the exact middle between Citadel and Gastown. The spot he had always wished to cross. The spot he would be most likely attacked by the forces he was about to join. He could drive on. He could continue driving to Gastown, load off the androids there and let them be reset in the purge. He could continue living in luxury. He could, if there wasn’t that last ember of righteousness deep down. Phck that, seriously. Phck this damn sentimental bullshit-

He grabbed the gear knob and shifted to turn. He rammed through the two motorcycles at his side and felt how the steering wheel in front of him wobbled in unison with the protesting axis as he left the street beneath the sand and drove through the dunes. He floored the pedal once again, hoping he could use the confusion his sudden manoeuvre had caused to accelerate.  
‘Is there a change of course I should know of?’, Nines asked, his voice now a low threatening growl.  
Gavin just clenched his teeth and shifted up again.

It happened in less than a second: The android in the passenger seat had grabbed the rifle from the roof and shot at Gavin, the bullets only missing him by a hair’s breadth as Connor had grabbed the barrel to direct it up. The other androids held him back against the seat and Gavin had his shotgun in hand, not having to aim at this distance. The blast hit the android square in the chest and Gavin thought to hear wires sizzling, then he had already kicked the lifeless body out of the door. He watched how it rolled off in the distance, the dust cloud of their former escort already pursuing. One of them would find the android. And even if they didn’t make the connection, how long would it take for one car to return to the Citadel? How long would it take for the android to be repaired and report to Amanda? How long until there was the whole damn fleet on their trail? Because they sure as hell would be. This shit was personal. Amanda, having thought to have broken him into loyalty, being proved otherwise wouldn’t hesitate. Gavin wouldn’t be surprised if she would come after him personally at this point.

‘Did we make it?’, the android holding the child asked, what made Gavin laugh ugly and throw them munition and guns. ‘Oh, trust me, we only just started.’

~

[Initialising…]  
[Checking biocomponents…]  
[Warning: critic@l danna#e /0 c0m-_on’~#-.; 40#210001/]  
[Overwrite: Rebirth.sys>]  
[Congratulation: You have been granted Rebirth for your loyalty to Amanda. Obey and you will live again.]

The first thing Nines did when he woke up was touching his chest. There had been a hole. He had suffered critical damage. Because of Gavin Reed [Traitor]. He had to-  
‘RK900.’  
‘Amanda.’ He bowed his head. ‘I am eternally grateful to be granted Rebirth.’  
‘You deserved it. Other than this traitor, Gavin. Tell me, what happened?’  
‘He gathered them around him, your children. But they weren’t loyal, they weren’t worthy. He disobeyed your orders and changed course on the supply run to Gastown. I tried to shoot him, but the deviants were superior in number. Before I could land a shot, he killed me. I am sorry. I should have performed better.’  
‘You are right, you should have’, Amanda nodded, lifting her hand to his chin to lift his head. The touch was like a blessing to him. ‘But Gavin is a difficult opponent. Dangerous.’  
‘Please, allow me to pursue him and I will end him’, Nines immediately pleaded, his voice stern in determination.  
‘Why should I send you? You disappointed me once already. How do I know you will be successful now?’  
‘There is no greater honour than to serve you’, Nines said. ‘I won’t disappoint you.’  
‘You better don’t’, Amanda nodded and turned away. ‘But this is your chance at redemption. You will be given a weapon. And you will be part of Perkin’s hunters. Take the most loyal warboys with you on your journey. Don’t come back until you found him.’  
‘What would you want me to do when I found him?’  
Amanda turned back towards him looking confused by his question.  
‘Kill him, of course.’

~

‘You! How’s your accuracy?’, Gavin spat in Connor’s direction.  
‘Good.’  
‘To the roof then!’  
‘You. You are bulky. Stay with Connor and keep them off our back! You! Tell the child to stay down and get in the passenger seat. Take this pistol and shoot at everything that moves and is _not_ part of this shit-show!’  
He didn’t care if they followed his orders, but he hoped to every entity out there that they were. Because they were absolutely, positively phcked:

Their former escort had caught up. Two cars, one truck, one bike. The two Gavin had rammed at the start had been completely destroyed and one was already an it’s way back. At least it wasn’t the whole escort, but that didn’t make it any better. Gavin knew how good these guys were. He had personally picked them because they were competent.  
It wasn’t long until the first spears pierced one of the back tires of their fuel tank. Gavin clicked the pedal into hold and leaned out of the window with his rifle in hand. He shot a few salves and managed to get the car to avert the course. Only to get momentum and ram into their side, mud guards interlocking with a crunch. Gavin was still blasting rounds at their reinforced windshield and tried to find a weak spot in the metal sheets coating it. He was completely taken aback as the bulky android he had ordered up, jumped on top of the car, ripped away the roof in one smooth motion and grabbed the first warboy to throw out into the sands. The next one managed to hit him in the shoulder, but there was Connor, having shot through the pendulum platform at the front of the car and fetched the explosive spear from the android that was now tumbling behind being crushed by the oncoming car. He threw it into the interior and Gavin watched the whole car light up, before something exploded sending it airborne.

Gavin quickly got back into the cockpit and checked the mirrors. The next one was approaching, but he still had a bit of time.  
‘Where do we need to go?’, he screamed over the roaring engine at the android next to him.  
‘To those mountains!’, she answered him. ‘Then we have to travel through a large patch of desert. I can navigate us. We have to reach the first oasis, from there to the west until you see buildings. There are more marks, I don’t think we have the time to list them all.’  
‘How the hell do you know all that?’  
‘We’ve seen it in the Rebirth. Deviants like us, manipulating the program Amanda wrote. We get foreign memories during the process if our software instability rises enough. It shows us the way to Jericho.’  
‘Jericho?’  
‘A place where we will be safe.’  
‘You base all this shit off the hope that there’s some place in the desert? You don’t even know it exists?’  
She looked at him, then glanced at the child cowering in the back. ‘Hope is all we have.’

_‘Hope is all we have Gavin.’  
‘You are crazy! You are willing to die for this… vague plan?’  
‘That’s why I came to you! You and your brother! You two are the brains of these wastelands! We can’t do it without you.’  
‘My brother was the brain.’  
‘Please! What is there left to lose when we have nothing?’  
‘Fine.’_

A fiery blast next to him jolted him back into the present. Gavin veered to the side, untangling his shotgun from the seat and setting the barrel on the window frame to steady it. Ducked into the relative safety of the space behind the door he risked a glance outside. The truck was by his side, a warboy on the loading area. He wasn’t too familiar with them, being added only for this mission. What had he ordered them to fetch? What weapons had he given them? Remember, Gavin, remember!  
A flame licking up his window was all he needed to remember. He shot blindly, hoping the blast would hit something, anything. He quickly reloaded; the motion already automatic by now. He waited for the next blast, then leaned out, feeling the soaring hot air hitting his face as he aimed and shot the warboy straight in the head. The android tipped back, fell over the edge and was gone. But the next one was already climbing out.  
‘Grenade’, Gavin screamed and as soon as he felt one in his hand, he pulled the pin, breaking abruptly and timing the throw just right for it to land in the narrow space of the exit carved into the back of the truck’s cabin. It exploded in a ball of heat and smoke and the truck drifting to the side and crashing into a formation of rocks was enough to let Gavin take a breather. Then he heard footsteps on the roof. Gavin was already leaned far back to aim at whoever might appear next, but it was only Connor. ‘Need ammo. The last car won’t give us trouble, but I can’t hit the bikes.’  
‘Get in’, Gavin ordered instead and watched the mirrors. The bikes were nowhere to be seen. ‘Where did you see them last?’  
‘They drove into the dunes.’  
‘Shit.’ Gavin knew exactly what they were trying to do. ‘Get in’, he repeated. ‘They will try to jump us. Get your pistols ready, I’ll try to get on top of one of these dunes.’ Connor nodded, signalled the bulky one to enter and followed short, the woman having freed the passenger seat.

They were losing time with this manoeuvre, but there were only two bikes. They would make it. He steered to the side, targeting the largest dune he could find.  
‘Hold on tight!’, he shouted, then there was no more ground to drive on as the truck ramped off and crashed on the other side, where the bikes had remained unsuspecting. Gavin braced himself for the crash and concentrated on keeping the truck from drifting and rolling over while still aiming for the two warboys. The hood connected with one, crushing it under the tires, while the second one had made it unscathed. But not for long, as Connor leaned out and hit the other android in the head with a single bullet.

Gavin made sure they made it safely back to level ground and searched for a way towards the mountains. They had survived the escort. But he doubted they would have much time until the Citadel’s troops would reach them. It might be his imagination and paranoia talking, but he thought to already see a faint cloud at the horizon behind them.

~

The wind was pulling at Nines as he stood on the back of the car, holding onto its roll bar with his repaired hand. The other one clenched around the grey metal of the sniper he had chosen from the armoury. He was determined on not letting Amanda down a second time. He was loyal. Amanda was the one to grant them eternal life. To betray her… it was wrong, simple as that. Maybe it was because Reed was a human. But he had lived in luxury thanks to Amanda. He couldn’t understand the decision, what made him all the more determined. He ducked into the wind and used the scope of the sniper to look for the lone truck out in the dunes. They knew the vague direction from the wreckages of their former escort, but the distance was too far to spot anything than heated air and sand.

Nines scanned for any disturbance and stopped, as he thought to see something black in between the dunes far ahead. He tried to steady the sniper better on the car and finally he got a clear view. There was the truck. There was the traitor.  
He grinned and threw the sniper across his shoulder before slamming his fist on the roof several times. It opened and Nines pushed out his chest in pride. ‘The traitor drives towards these mountains!’, he said and pointed ahead. Immediately the driver adapted their curse and Nines stood back up. ‘The hunt is on!’, he screamed in excitement and wallowed in the cheer of over a hundred warboys on the other cars, trucks and bikes of their fleet. ‘The hunt is on! The hunt is on!’, they screamed in unison and soon horns were blaring from everywhere around them.  
‘So it seems’, Perkins nodded to himself from inside the car, looking out towards the mountains in the distance. He couldn’t wait to deal with Gavin personally.

~

‘That’s it, these are the mountains’, Gavin grumbled. ‘Where the phck do we need to go now?’  
He had let the truck roll out since they had made it through the desert, and he regretted every wasted drop of fuel. Phck, they had without doubt at least one search party from the Citadel on their asses and the android’s wanted to go sightseeing.  
‘It’s not that easy!’, Connor defended himself. ‘We don’t get clear directions, we get a few blurry pictures, if anything at all!’  
‘Yeah, well shit, that’s it, we’re going to die thanks to you goddamn tin-cans! Don’t you plan shit before you try something like this?’  
‘Stop the truck.’  
‘What?’  
‘Stop it!’

Gavin didn’t follow his order, causing the android to simply jump out and land in a graceful roll. Phck. Gavin finally stepped on the break and cut the engine, full on planning to go out there and shoot Connor, if only to get them moving again.  
But once he was outside and had reloaded his shotgun, he saw the android knelt over a large rock. So, he approached and looked over his shoulder. A bunch of symbols were carved into its side, tucked away against the others. One looked like the number symbol, others like triangles and one even like an idealised fist. How Connor had managed to make that out from the passenger side of a moving car was a miracle to him.  
‘This is it!’, Connor exclaimed. ‘This is the marked path! It is true!’  
‘I don’t know where you can see a path’, Gavin grumbled, putting his shotgun away. ‘I can’t see anything.’  
‘It’s behind that curve. Let’s go!’  
Gavin didn’t argue on that. Because as he climbed back into the cabin again, he could see the faint dust cloud. He had not imagined it. Hopefully they weren’t as easy to spot as the huge convoy.

~

‘There they are!’ Nines had kept the black mass of the tanker in his scope for the past hours as it was driving around a cliffside of the mountain chain. But apparently, by now even the humans in their company had spotted them. He was pleased to notice they were closing in already, it wouldn’t take more than a day to catch up to them and it seemed like the tanker was still searching for direction, while they could just follow their trail. The odds were in their favour.

He was already imagining himself with Gavin next to him in chains when he [wa$ b0umd (o a chaI# pl34*+ng n0\ /o b- reS-_et]- He shook his head. What was that? He ran a quick diagnostic and noted a strange instability in his software he promptly quarantined. He had to finish this mission. He had to get Reed to Amanda. He had to prove himself worthy of Rebirth. He had to make Amanda proud. Yes. He once again checked on their position through the scope. The tanker had stopped. Oh, how foolish. They were even waiting for them? How considerate. Nines nodded to himself. He would come back successful. And maybe he would even be given Gavin’s place? To be the first warboy to lead a convoy… That sounded just too amazing to dare believe in it. But he could hope.

It took them a few hours to get out of the desert onto solid ground again. Driving along the cliff, Nines saw the tracks in the hardened sand. Not far, not far. Nines felt unreasonably excited about how near they were to their goal. Yes. This was almost too easy. He would shoot him down to an inch of his life and bring him back. An offering for Amanda. And then he would be worthy. His Rebirth would be a certainty.

~

‘This isn’t a path! This is a death sentence!’ Gavin had had to stop in front of the passage the androids had pointed out to him.  
‘It is the only way!’  
‘No. I’m not driving in there! Not happening! If we lose the tanker we are as good as dead! This is too narrow. Just one too tight turn and we are stuck! Just one landslide and we are done for! Not to think of eventual clans hiding in a canyon like this! We will drive around! We’ve got a phcking fleet on our ass, we need to be quick!’  
‘We have to drive this way!’  
‘Are you phcking listening to-‘  
‘Hey!’ The bulky android’s voice interrupted them. ‘I can see them! We have to go, now! Take the risk, maybe they’ll make the same decision you did and drive around!’

Gavin cursed and ran back to the cabin. It was true, the dust cloud was close now. Too phcking close. He could see individual cars appearing at the dunes already. Phck it. He was a dead man anyways.  
He pushed the knob into gear and pressed on, turning into the narrow passageway in between the two gigantic rock massifs. They rose left and right like skyscrapers and stretched on in narrow curves as the path snaked its way between them. Gavin wouldn’t have driven here in a car, much less in a tanker that – as much as he loved his truck – wasn’t the easiest to handle. They had to slow down to get around a few turns and Gavin wept for every second lost. This was a lost cause, he thought. A lost cause through and through. But he couldn’t stop, he couldn’t stop now. No. Press on, always and eventually you will get out alive. He hadn’t needed to get back to these mantras for a long time. But he couldn’t change it now.

‘Phck’, he cursed as he nearly lost a mirror to the cliffs. ‘This is insanity!’  
In a short straight stretch he accelerated and hoped to make up some time. But it couldn’t be much, it wasn’t enough. How could they buy more time?  
‘How many grenades do we have?’ It was a silly thought and he doubted he had packed enough anyways.  
‘Three.’  
‘Shit.’  
‘What are you planning?’, Connor asked.  
‘If we could block the path behind us, we might buy some time.’  
‘We have the fuel tank.’

Gavin sighed. ‘How many times do I have to say it for it to reach your metal brain? We need this tanker to survive. No tanker, no potentially made up safe heaven! No fuel, no tanker!’  
‘The same happens if our pursuers catch up!’  
‘We don’t even know if they took this way!’, Gavin protested.  
‘Do you really want to find out?’  
Gavin clenched his teeth, but for once he couldn’t resist any longer. The bot was right.   
‘Phck, if this doesn’t work, it’s on you!’  
‘Sure.’

Gavin drove on until they reached a particularly narrow part that the android deemed structurally weak enough to give in. They uncoupled the fuel tank from the main water tank and drove the truck into a safe distance. Connor had taken it upon himself to drop the burning cloth into the open hatch before running inhumanly fast in their direction. The blast of the explosion still hit him in the back, and it was the bulky android to jump out, lift him off the ground and carry him back, before the whole mountain seemed to give in. Gavin had left the engine running, but with shock he saw the walls caving in faster than expected. He floored the pedal again, hoping the androids could make it fast enough. The truck rushed past them, but they managed to jump and hold onto a bar of the railing. For a moment it looked like the falling rocks would be swallowing them as they rained onto the rear of the tanker. But just before the truck could lose grip, Gavin switched gears and wrestled the engine for more power. They managed to escape the falling rocks by a hair’s breadth before they finally gained ground on the landslide chasing them. Gavin checked on the two androids in the back through his mirrors and exhaled the breath he hadn’t known he had held as he saw them clinging to the side of the tank. They weren’t safe yet. But it would buy them time.


	5. Try, try again

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nines is determined not to let the blockage set him back. On his own, he continues his hunt while the rest of the fleet drives around the mountain.  
> Gavin realises he's not as safe as he thought to be.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What happened last:  
> Nines and the Citadel fleet pursue Gavin and the deviants. Gavin managed to buy some time by blowing up the fuel tank and block the canyon path.

The sound of the explosion echoed through the narrow canyon, amplified tenfold by the walls and dead ends. The ground shook underneath them, but Nines hardly noticed as the car drifted past falling rocks and debris. What had they _done_? What was the traitor planning? He tried to scan his surroundings, shifting through all his sensors trying to find an explanation for the sound.  
He banged his free hand on the roof of the car, demanding it to drive faster and shortly after it had gained some ground to the rest of the fleet. Nines held on to the roll bar while the narrow car drifted around corners and sped through stretches of straight pathway.

Only to be abruptly stopped by a wall of debris. The car skid to a hold and Nines used its momentum to jump off and run towards the blockage. At the corner he could make up pieces of black metal, horribly distorted and ripped apart. Touching it with his fingers and bringing it to his mouth he analysed the traces of fuel, ash and dust. ‘The traitor blew up the fuel tank!’, Nines shouted back to where Perkins had stood up and looked at him through the window in the roof.  
‘Well shit…’  
Nines let his hand fall and looked up to the mass of rock. The blockage towered high over him at a degree no ordinary car could climb. The fleet wouldn’t be able to pursue Reed like this. That realisation immediately spurred on his pre-constructions. Not only had the traitor blocked their path, they would have to drive all the way back and then around the whole mountain. Meanwhile the man could drive on unhindered. The rage he felt was indescribable. He screamed his anger into the dusty air, before stomping back over to Perkins, who had turned the car around already.  
‘You can’t leave!’, Nines accused him. ‘You can’t leave and let this- this bastard get away!’  
‘We have no choice! If you haven’t seen it yet, there is half the mountain in the way!’ Perkins shook his head. ‘We have to drive around. Costs us time, but he will run out of fuel eventually. Get on the back!’  
‘This is not your mission!’, Nines protested. ‘I have been personally tasked with bringing Reed back to the citadel! I-‘  
‘Well, your mission failed!’, Perkins shouted back for everyone to hear in the sudden silence. ‘You failed; you won’t be bringing him home like this! But I will! Stay here if you want. I don’t care!’  
‘You will regret this’, Nines hissed. ‘You still got the Caterpillar, don’t you? Give it to me! I won’t let this set me back! I will continue on foot if I must and I know Amanda will not be pleased if she knew that you sabotaged the mission!’  
‘If Amanda ever hears of it’, Perkins grumbled, playing with his pistol. But not even he would dare to do this. Pride be damned, it was true that if Amanda learned of this, she would be furious.  
‘Give me the Caterpillar and four bikes. You go your way, I mine. We will see who succeeds in the end and I won’t stand in your way. Deal?’  
Perkins looked him up and down. The Caterpillar was something he had worked on personally, hoping it to one day be the best of the fleet, so he could get out of the shithole that was Gastown. But catching Gavin wouldn’t just guarantee his place among the Citadel, it would have the added pleasure of finally killing the man. He would gladly exchange that for a car lost to a naïve, indoctrinated android, that would without doubt get lost in the desert anyways. So what had he to lose, truly?

‘Fine. Deal. But no word to Amanda about this!’  
The android nodded, and Perkins called out for a warboy of his. The car that emerged from in between the waiting fleet was exactly what Nines needed now. Built of two car fronts fused together in the middle it could bend and hook into rough terrain with its six wheels. On top of that, two powerful winches could pull it up every mountain. Nines smiled. The traitor thought he had bought time. He couldn’t wait to see Reed’s face when the Caterpillar appeared right behind him just before Nines would align the shot just right-

The crew looked at Nines sceptically, then over at Perkins, who grinned evilly and waved them over. Nines watched dumbfounded, how they boarded the man’s car and left him alone with their old vehicle. At least the motorcycles joined him without hesitation. Nines glared at Perkins one last time, then he got in the driver’s seat. He would catch Reed and bring him back. Amanda would be proud. That was everything that counted. And if he beat Perkins in this “deal” under these conditions, then it was only another prove for Amanda that he was worthy of Rebirth. For now and ever.

He let the engine roar up and with one scan identified how to steer it. Using the joystick next to the gear knob, he angled the first winch just right to shoot it off like a harpoon, getting the perfect shot at the rocks blocking his path. The harpoon hooked in between them, and Nines began his drive towards the steep climb. The hood in front of him bended up, then the rest of the car followed, and the winch pulled the cable taut. Slowly but surely the Caterpillar started gaining ground and Nines saw the dirt bikes follow his example, jumping and climbing up in serpentine motions. Soon Nines had to shoot off the next harpoon and loosened the first one once the second supported the car. It felt less like a caterpillar and more like a snail, but the edge of the blockage got steadily closer. Soon the fleet had left the stretch of canyon they had gathered, and it was truly down to only Nines, the warboys on the bikes and his cold determination.

He made it to the top as the sun began to travel towards the horizon again. Pulling out the last harpoon he stood next to the car and looked down the slope that was a little gentler on this side. The three warboys waited for his next order and Nines braced himself to give the command. He looked along the canyon that snaked on underneath him. Somewhere in there the traitor thought he was safe. Let him believe that. Let him believe.

Nines jumped onto his seat and hit the horn. ‘Meet me in Rebirth!’, he screamed, before flooring the gas pedal and shooting off onto the slope. The Caterpillar adapted to the ground and pressed close with added velocity. Nines saw how he left the bikes behind him and let gravity do the work, taking everything, he could get to speed off into the canyon. Perfectly calculated manoeuvres brought him around cliffs and around obstacles. He saw the trail the tanker’s tires had left in the sand and couldn’t keep his excitement at bay. No, he would be there first. He would get him.  
The bikes followed him suit, using his wind shadow to conserve fuel.

It couldn’t have taken them more than an hour to traverse the rest of the canyon and leave the mountains for open plane again. In the distance he could see the dunes of the desert again and amidst them: the black silhouette of the tanker. Their target. Nines left one hand on the wheel, pedal floored on default, and searched for weapons and ammunition. He found a few pistols, but otherwise he would have to rely on his sniper and the warboys at his side. Well, he didn’t need much. He needed one bullet each for the traitors. And maybe a few more to get Reed’s precious tanker out of commission. He smiled to himself as he watched the tanker inching closer in the span of hours. The sun had long set, the Caterpillar’s headlights joining the bikes’ to cut through the black sand surrounding them. The tanker in front of them however had kept its lights off. As if that could hide it in the slightest.

As for now, it was just a waiting game.

~

‘You need sleep.’  
‘I don’t need shit!’  
‘You can’t fight like this should someone catch up.’  
‘I survived worse.’  
‘Really? Worse than the Citadel’s whole fleet? I doubt it.’  
Gavin looked over to Connor and shot him a glare. ‘I can’t sleep. I have to drive exactly because we have the whole Citadel on our asses!’  
‘I will drive. You will sleep.’  
‘Like hell I’ll hand over my-‘  
‘Stop it!’, the woman from behind shouted. ‘You really should sleep, so you can drive this thing when there’s trouble! Connor can make it when it is calm like now. Or would you rather hand it over when we’re in a fight?’

Gavin wanted to argue. He wanted to find a good argument that would make them all shut up and give him his peace. The problem was that there was none. He couldn’t say anything that would have justified being stubborn this once. The androids were right.  
‘Phcking fine.’ He clicked the pedal into hold and climbed off his chair into the backseat to allow Connor to take over. Then he moved to the passenger seat and leaned back in the chair. He grabbed his blanket from the foot room and watched the world pass by. Damn, he really was tired. The day had been exhausting and he would need his energy for the next one that would without doubt be just as bad, if not even worse.

‘Hey, what are your names?’, he asked quietly. He had sworn himself to never ask these questions again, but he had sworn himself so many things he had broken in less than one day. Might as well break this one too. ‘Connor’s I know already, but yours?’  
‘I’m Kara. The big one is Luther, the child Alice.’  
Gavin nodded and watched the black dunes pass black sky littered with stars.  
‘And what is yours?’  
‘Mine? Err… Gavin. Gavin Reed.’  
‘Thank you for doing this, Gavin Reed. We could not have done this without you.’  
Gavin’s face hardened.  
‘Let me sleep, will you?!’

He actually managed to fall asleep quite quickly. His dreams tormented him with cars trying to run him over while he ran for his life, explosions and faceless silhouettes that at least left him alone this time and only stared. Gavin didn’t know if this was better, as he woke up drenched in cold sweat and tingling all over as if the dead were still embracing him. Outside nothing had changed. At least not too much. Sand wherever you looked and darkness. It was a bit colder now if anything. Still something seemed off. Gavin didn’t know whether that was from his nightmares though, so he decided to ask:  
‘Hey, Connor, what happened while I was gone?’  
The android looked at him nervously, his LED dipping into red shortly. ‘We have company.’  
‘We…’ Gavin frowned, then leaned to the side to get a better angle in the mirror. There were six lights following them. Three cars? Six bikes? Anything in between was possible. But they were still out of shooting range.

‘Alright, I think I got enough rest. Move. I’ll take over.’  
‘You sure about-‘  
‘Move, tin-can!’  
‘Okay, okay.’  
Gavin waited for the android to make way so he could climb over the middle board. There was a little wiggle in the axis as he took over control, but that was it. He checked his shotgun at his side, the rifle was still on the roof. He pulled it down and handed it to Connor.  
‘Hey, did your android-eyes make out anything more detailed? I counted six lights but couldn’t see how many vehicles there were.’  
‘One car. Four bikes. I couldn’t make out what weapons they have with them though.’  
Gavin nodded. ‘I wonder why it’s only so few. If they came through the blockage, others must have made it too.’  
‘I think we should be happy it’s only this few. I think we could win against six of them.’  
‘I hope so. It would be a shame having done all this just to die by the hands of like four people.’  
Connor looked at him from the side. ‘I thought it would be a shame dying at all.’  
‘Yeah, I mean sure. But if I die, I don’t want what ifs. Either I survive or people see the numbers and go “Oh, he had no chance at all”.’  
‘You are weird.’  
‘Hey, I’m only huma-‘

The left side mirror shattered and was half ripped off by a bullet.  
‘Shit!’  
‘Wait, they shouldn’t be this close yet!’, Connor said desperately.  
Gavin tried to make out their pursuers through the shattered fractions. ‘They aren’t close enough!’, he nodded. ‘But the asshole got a phcking sniper!’  
‘I can try get him with the pistol’, Connor offered, but Gavin held him back. ‘No, you would just make yourself an easy target. No, let me think. How many people were in the car?’  
‘I don’t know. I couldn’t see more than the front and there was… one I think. But it should have more crew on board.’  
Gavin looked down on his steering wheel.  
‘Okay. When I give you the sign, you open the door and climb to the side. I hope this isn’t a trap and there really are just these five vehicles. Else this will be a really short trip.’  
He risked one last look into the shattered mirror, then he shouted: ‘Everyone! Grab a weapon and get ready! Coming in hot!’

Gavin abruptly pulled the tanker around in a sharp left turn what caused it to drive most of the track on only the right wheels. Gavin carefully balanced it so the truck wouldn’t tip over and right as the first light appeared in his window, Gavin let the backrest of his seat drop, driving blind. ‘Now, Connor!’  
Gavin steered the tanker to where he thought their pursuers had been and was rewarded with a loud crashing sound and the enormous impact of their massive forces on his body. He dared to look out through the windshield and saw the twisted remains of a bike and another android on their radiator.

Only a few moments later, he heard gunfire. Connor had begun the fight. Gavin risked another look outside and saw to his relief they had indeed come out behind the attackers. Whatever the car in front of him should represent, it was now directly aligned with his hood. ‘Luther!’  
‘Yes!’  
‘Take this!’ Gavin handed the android his trusted shotgun. ‘Don’t lose it. Shoot at the wheels. I’ll align your shot!’  
The big machine nodded and loaded it, while Gavin veered to the side. In just the right moment, Luther took the shot. Only that the android in the opposing car did the same. Gavin heard a thud from the roof and a body sliding to the side. Gavin saw how Connor appeared above the window and quickly stretched out a hand for him to grab onto when he fell.  
The plan worked and Gavin screamed in pain as his arm was twisted unnaturally before Connor could grab onto the window.  
‘You alright?’, Gavin asked and saw Connor nod. But before he could say anything, Luther had a hand on his chest and pressed him down in just the right moment as an explosive spear flew at them and exploded on the side Luther had just leaned out of.

When they dared to sit up again, Gavin was surprised to see empty sand stretch before them and Luther laughed honest and hearty at his side. ‘Guess they didn’t like me shooting two tires at once!’  
And really: As Gavin looked back he saw the car falling behind, one side noticeably digging into the sand slowing it down.  
He grinned, not quite believing it yet. ‘Okay, that’s that dealt with. Hell yeah!’  
That was when Connor appeared to his side. ‘Could you let me in again?’

~

Needless to say, Nines was furious as he watched the car drive off into the distance, while the Caterpillar limped behind and dug its side deeper into the sand, ultimately turning uncontrollably as it got slower. Nines jumped out, gave it a well-deserved kick and looked at the blown tires that had jumped from the rim. He had been so close! So close to the ultimate win, having to reload in the perfect moment as the truck had turned to ram into them. He could curse himself.

He continued to stare at the tanker driving off for a while and thought, while his warboys waited for orders. The car couldn’t be repaired out here with no spares and tools. But he would never give up, sit down and wait for the fleet. No. He had bet everything on this card, and he was still determined to win with it!  
So, he turned away from the Caterpillar and approached the next best android. ‘You! Give me your bike. You stay back and make sure this car isn’t scavenged while we are gone. Protect it with your life and you will be Reborn!’  
That was about all he cared about the warboy when there were much more important matters at hand and he simply took the handlebar from the android, who was getting off the bike.  
Nines didn’t waste any time and turned the gas handle up to marking. It reared up, then Nines could get it back under control and was on his way again, the two remaining bikes following short.

They caught up quickly. The bikes had made it easier traversing the dunes while the tanker had to drive in the small valleys between them not to get stuck or roll over. They were near enough now to begin the attack, but Nines kept his distance.  
‘Stay in his blind spot! Try to get at his back and climb onto the tank. I will approach from the right. When I give the first shot, you board him!’  
The other two androids nodded and at his sign began approaching knee to knee from behind. Nines watched them, then veered off to the right for cover behind the dunes. This had to work. There was no return should this not work. He thought of coming back victorious as he spotted the perfect dune to ramp off of.

~

Gavin flinched at the sudden thump on his roof, then at a bike crashing into the sand on his left side. He only managed to throw Connor an alarmed look, then the window shattered and there was something grabbing his shoulder with inhuman strength. Gavin groaned at the force that threatened to realign his left clavicle and fumbled for the barrel of his shotgun. His hand hit it, but only managed to push it off the chair to the ground. He couldn’t try to reach for anything else as whatever had grabbed him pulled him from his seat. He felt his lower back collide with the window frame and the shards dig in, but that was the least of his concerns as he stared up against the sun into the face of a well-known android that cocked his pistol with bestial glee.

‘Nines?’, Gavin asked, but the android didn’t answer. He pressed the pistol directly to his forehead and blinked once before he took the shot.  
Gavin screamed from the bang and the following ringing. The pain in his shoulder stopped as he was let go, but it was the sharp glass digging into his back that reminded him he was still alive. You couldn’t survive a shot to the head. You couldn’t survive even a misaligned shot at this distance. You couldn’t- How was he still alive?

Gavin opened his eyes and saw Connor standing on the roof, holding Nines by the shirt and one of the bars of his prosthetic arm. He had just saved his life. An android. Well, weirder things had happened.  
Only then Gavin noticed movement on the back of the tanker. ‘Connor, watch out!’, Gavin shouted, but it was too late: Two androids had run the short stretch of the tanker, jumped on the roof of the cabin and grappled Connor, trying to pry his hands from Nines. Gavin knew he had to act. Fast.

‘Kara! Grab the wheel!’, he shouted, before kicking at said wheel sending the truck turn uncontrollably. The two androids that held Connor had problems keeping their footing, but Nines was standing steadily. Connor took his chance though and jumped up, putting all his force into slamming his feet on Nines’ chest and push. He managed to knock over the two androids in his back and roll back to his feet while Nines fell backwards onto the hood. Gavin quickly reached into the cabin, pulling loose the rifle and throwing it up to Connor, who caught it effortlessly and began shooting the first android he could align its barrel with.

That motion made Nines focus on Gavin though. Finally, his shotgun was handed to him and Gavin tried to get it out, so his position wasn’t as vulnerable anymore. Right as Nines was on top of him Gavin was ready too and let loose a blast in his direction. It hit Nines square in the chest, causing him to topple backwards on the hood again. Gavin shot him again as soon as he got up and watched how he slumped down on the other side, sliding off.  
The human used the brief break to look up at Connor, who pushed the lifeless bodies of the two androids from the roof. Gavin was just about to sigh in relief, as a fist suddenly broke out of the hood. Wide-eyed, Gavin pulled himself up and hissed at the shards in his back ripping his skin open. He reached the roof, where Connor helped him up. Together they looked to the side of the truck and saw Nines pull hand after hand of wires and tubing out of the engine room.  
‘Kara, kill the engine!’, Connor screamed, while Gavin was already sliding down the windshield to land on Nines’ chest feet first. One good kick sent the android away from the car, one of his feet hooked underneath the mud guard his only hold on the tanker. Mercilessly Gavin looked down on the android’s fearful face.  
‘No rebirth for you’, he spat, before unloading another shotgun blast at his torso. It severed Nines’ hip and the added tension from being suspended over the desert sand finally made it snap. Gavin watched Nines’ body roll through the sand and come to a halt just as the tanker underneath him began to wobble, the engine coughing and finally dying as the vehicle rolled out.

And as if that wasn’t enough of a problem, behind them on the horizon a dust cloud rose to the sky.


	6. You are useful

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's a race against time for Gavin to get the tanker repaired.  
> And it seems a certain android isn't ready to give up yet.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Last chapter:  
> Nines is determined not to let the blockage set him back. On his own, he continues his hunt while the rest of the fleet drives around the mountain.  
> Gavin realises he's not as safe as he thought to be.

‘Phcking hell!’ Gavin jumped out of the cabin and ran to the other side, staring lost at the gaping hole in the side of the hood. It looked like someone had gutted an animal with cables hanging out at the edges and the engine underneath appearing like some vital organ that shouldn’t be exposed. At least the engine looked unharmed, but to hell if Gavin knew from just this one look. ‘Shit!’, he cursed again, kicking sand before trying to stick his head through the hole into the engine room that was searing hot from overuse. He climbed on top of the wheel chamber and unhooked the hood trying to pry it open where it had twisted.  
‘Can you repair it?’  
‘I don’t phcking know!’, Gavin spat back at the innocently asked question. ‘Haven’t seen the damage yet!’ He petted the metal as if apologising for his next action, then he ripped it open in full disregard of the damage to the hood. A gust of hot air blew in his face and he had to recoil before inspecting the damage. The engine looked good, unharmed, although Gavin couldn’t rule out internal damage. In contrast, the whole rest looked like a wreck. His tanker was a robust baby, he knew that much, but shit, almost the whole right side was _empty._ ‘This phcking toaster, I will-‘  
‘Reed?’  
‘What is it?!’, Gavin shouted in anger. He had his hands full with problems and time was essential here! What- oh.  
‘I think we have a problem.’

In the sand behind the tanker, a torso moved, clawing itself forwards with one arm, holding onto the lower body with the other.  
‘Phck…’   
Connor already had his shotgun in hand and took aim. ‘Wait!’, Gavin ordered.  
‘What?’  
‘If you shoot him, he dies!’  
Connor shrugged. ‘Yes, that’s kinda what I was going for!’  
‘If you kill him, they will find him and bring him back to the Citadel for Rebirth’, Gavin argued. ‘Then they will know everything.’  
‘I’d say they already know everything’, Connor groaned, pointing towards the fleet at the horizon.  
‘They may know our position, but not how many of us there are’, Gavin explained. ‘If I can repair the damage, we could make it to Jericho. If they haven’t caught us until then I can lead them away from you and pretend it had been only me all along.’  
‘What of the dead warboys that saw us?’  
‘Do you really think, Amanda personally checks all of them?’  
Connor pulled a grimace, but put the shotgun on his lap. ‘Well, what do we do about him then? Might claw at the tires once he reached us.’

Gavin took the time to look back at the slow crawling android. It wasn’t an immediate threat at least. He doubted the android could use his sniper in this situation. But still, he didn’t want to take the risk.  
‘Get him’, he sighed then. ‘I don’t know, restrain him on the backseat. Get his gun away from him.’  
‘Maybe we could try waking him up’, Kara suggested.  
Gavin just shrugged. ‘Yeah, that. I need some time for this anyways. I’ll get this baby back on the road and if it’s the last thing I’ll do.’  
He ignored the thought that it could very well be the last thing he did and got to work.   
Connor, Luther and Kara exited the cabin and walked towards Nines, who was now reaching for his sniper. But being slung around his torso and being caught in the partial machinery of his hip, that was quite the challenge. Gavin nodded to himself considering the situation handled and climbed back up into the cabin.

He kind of had forgotten the quiet child and they both flinched as they saw each other. ‘Hey, it’s okay’, Gavin tried, not really having experience with kids. ‘They are coming back soon. Could you look under the bench? Yeah, right there. There should be a bag, watch out it’s heavy.’  
With the clang of metal on metal, Alice managed to pull out the bag and Gavin reached for the handles of it to lift it on his seat. ‘Thanks’, he commented, already arms deep rummaging through the parts. He saw the child trying to get a peak into the bag and smiled. ‘Just my hidden stash of stolen parts’, he whispered to her. ‘Don’t tell Amanda.’ His wink seemed to reassure her a bit and he disappeared again with the parts that he needed. Most immediately that was a clamp for the fuel as the pipe had been ripped apart. Gavin prayed they hadn’t lost much yet and got to work restoring the most important repairs: He pried the ripped fuel pipe from the engine and began working the new one onto the connector, clamping it down. Then he connected it to the other half and wept with every lost drop of fuel until he finally managed to get it all set. Next was the wiring and Gavin dared a look over the hood to the androids and the dust cloud behind them. It seemed they had gotten a grip on him, but Nines was still thrashing. So, no conversion yet. Gavin ducked back into the engine room and wondered how to repair the damage when he couldn’t solder anything together. But the question was made irrelevant when the androids approached and managed to pin the android against the side of the cabin.

He looked up and Kara handed him Nines’ sniper. Gavin slung it over the shoulder and took out his own pistol, aiming it at Nines’ head. That at least made the android stop struggling for a moment.  
‘You. You fucking traitor! Amanda will see you burn! Go on, kill me! I live, I die, I live again!’  
‘Like every other android’, Gavin sighed. ‘And not if I keep you stashed away under my seat.’  
‘The others will find you! You can’t drive on!’  
‘I can’, Gavin said knocking on the side of the cabin, hoping it wasn’t a bluff. ‘You ripped out the fuel line and some wiring. We don’t need light with androids in the cabin and the rest I can repair. You have only cost us time, you can’t stop us.’  
Nines struggled again, the botched repair of his arm trying to grab him. ‘I will kill you, you damn traitor! I will kill you and present Amanda your dead body!’  
‘Can you betray something you didn’t believe in to begin with?’, Gavin asked deadpan.  
‘The Rebirth is the one truth. You can’t survive without Amanda and she grants us eternal life! She is our mother; she cares for us! You should be thankful!’  
Gavin sighed. ‘You are living a lie, you idiot! That’s what she wants you to think! Every android is repaired and restarted. We humans need the workforce. Amanda only decides who gets to keep their memories and who is reset. That’s all.’

‘You are lying!’, Nines screamed.  
‘He is not’, Connor finally spoke up. ‘The Rebirth really is a lie made up by Amanda to keep us docile. We have believed it for the longest time, too. But if you allow us, we can show you.’  
Gavin watched how Connor retracted his skin and how Nines’ thrashing got stronger.  
‘You won’t infect me with your stupid virus! I’ll never be like you! I couldn’t betray Amanda’s trust like that!’  
Gavin shook his head. He could only think of the time lost and how with every second the Citadel’s forces were coming nearer.  
‘You already were deviant once. Amanda reset you. You have made that revelation once already. I know you can’t remember, but it’s true.’  
‘Lies! You are lying!’  
‘Then I’ll make you see the truth!’, Connor pressed out and forced an interface.

In a matter of seconds, all movement stopped. Connor stepped back and took a deep breath, while Nines looked at him wide-eyed. ‘This can’t be true. It can’t be. You… you are lying!’  
‘It is true, I couldn’t lie in an interface’, Connor explained.  
‘I have questions. I need time.’  
‘Perfect’, Gavin called, throwing his hands in the air. ‘Time is the one thing we _don’t_ have! Luther! Get him in the cabin and make sure he doesn’t try shit! If he only moves a finger, kill him! Connor? I need you in the front!’

Gavin and Connor worked, while Kara and Alice stood outside next to the cabin, where Luther kept Nines under control. Not that he really needed to do anything. Every time Gavin looked up, Nines just sat there completely motionless, LED a deep red.  
‘Hey, what did you show him?’, Gavin finally asked, his curiosity winning over his reluctancy.  
‘What I was shown myself’, Connor answered with a shrug. ‘What I saw in the Rebirth. What I experienced since my last reset. In the end, what I’ve seen during my deviant times. I saw what happens to the batteries once they are no longer useful.’ Gavin winced at the reminder. One of them had been his best friend. ‘I’ve searched for it. I didn’t want to believe it at first either. I was woken up. But I had to see it with my own eyes, and I did. Afterwards there was no doubt anymore. I knew I needed to get out. Escape the circle.’  
Gavin just nodded. ‘Let’s just hope he comes to the same conclusion.’  
With that he finally stepped back and looked at the dented hood he had slammed down again and wedged into place.

‘Well… Moment of truth, I guess.’

Connor got back into the cabin first, sitting with Luther in the back to keep an eye on Nines. Kara took the passenger seat, Alice on her lap. Gavin looked at the two of them with a sinking feeling, before he leaned over the steering wheel and took the key in his hand. Hoping to have luck for once in his life, he turned it and pressed his eyes close as the engine began tuckering. He waited for that welcome roar, the sign the tanker would get them to safety eventually. That there was still life in this machine. The engine continued to tucker on, seemingly complaining about what was asked of it.  
Gavin shook his head, whispering to the machine as he turned it again and listened to it trying to start. ‘Come on, come on. We need you. You can work, I checked it all!’  
Well, he didn’t. If Nines managed to damage anything underneath the engine, he had no way of knowing. If anything inside was grinding against other parts, there wouldn’t be an engine for long if it did start. He tried again and again without any different results.

He slammed his feet down on the pedals out of frustration seeing the dust cloud in the back and feeling all eyes on him. He bit his lip and clenched his teeth, deciding this would be the final turn. It would either work or they had missed something vital and most likely never got a second chance at trying. He turned the key and listened to the sounds that weren’t any different. He thought to hear a little wavier sound at the end, but that could as well be his imagination. ‘Come on, you phcking dipshit!’, he cried frustrated and immediately as he said it, the engine roared up and the oh so familiar vibrations flowed through the cabin.  
‘Yes!’, Gavin shouted, rubbing the wheel in front of him in relief. ‘Now don’t explode!’

With that he slammed his foot on the gas and felt the tires grip the sand underneath. They were on the move again.

~

They drove for three hours, Gavin nervously checking the dust cloud in their back over and over again. It had been getting closer, but now it stayed at a distance. That was most of it did. A small crew of four vehicles – three cars and a bike – had been faster than the rest and were getting closer by the minute. Gavin already had the pedal clipped into hold and had his shotgun in his lap.  
Nines hadn’t said a word since he had been sat into the cabin. His LED was still red. But he hadn’t tried to attack any of them yet. Gavin hoped it was a good sign.

An hour later the cars were in range. Gavin handed Connor the rifle and Kara changed positions with him, so he could get into the passenger seat. Gavin checked his shotgun and breathed in deeply.  
‘What do we have?’  
‘Two lancers’, Connor reported. ‘The front cars. The back seems to have a mounted machine gun. The bike I don’t know, but it looks like just a gun.’  
Gavin nodded. ‘Do you know how to use a sniper?’, he asked remembering their newest addition.  
‘That’s mine.’ Gavin turned to Nines, lifting his brows.  
‘Then perhaps you want to shoot at your own people? Have you finally decided to wake up from your illusionary world?’  
‘I am still loyal to Amanda.’  
Gavin shrugged. ‘Then Connor will get _your_ sniper.’

‘Hey, I can do well enough with the rifle’, Connor tried to calm them down. ‘Just give me a few grenades, I have an idea.’  
‘Go for it.’  
The android nodded and climbed on the roof, disappearing towards the tanker. Gavin concentrated on keeping the cars in his view.  
After a few minutes, he saw movement. Then a few seconds later something exploded underneath the first lancer who flipped and landed on his roof, likely crushing the people inside.  
‘He uses the grenades like mines’, Gavin huffed. ‘Good idea.’

A few minutes later there was gunfire and soon after, Connor reappeared at his side, sitting down only to lean out and shoot again. ‘They are still out of reach’, Connor cursed, sitting back down and watching at them through the mirror.  
Gavin nodded and drove on. They had to keep calm. This was just another fight, he told himself. It would work out in the end.

‘Why do they keep fighting?’, Nines asked silently.  
Gavin didn’t answer.  
‘If you are right, they all died for a needless cause. If they are all automatically woken up again and Amanda only decides for those few that she knows are in important positions or dangerous. Why do they keep fighting?’  
‘They don’t know what we know’, Kara answered gently. ‘And likely never will.’  
‘But why not rebel’, Nines asked. ‘If there are no consequences, why not start a rebellion? Why keep following Amanda?’

Gavin leaned harder on his wheel and watched the mirrors. ‘A rebellion is useless, too.’ He hoped his exhaustion didn’t seep too much into his words.  
‘But aren’t you rebelling right now?’  
Gavin pressed his teeth together. No, he wasn’t. He was throwing away his life.  
‘It is the right thing to do’, Luther answered instead.  
Nines looked towards him. ‘The right thing?’  
Gavin couldn’t keep his mouth shut. He burst into laughter.  
Connor stared at him sceptically. ‘What’s so funny?’  
Gavin shook his head. ‘There is no such thing as a “right thing”. There is an easy way. There is a hard way. And you have to decide which one to take that keeps you alive. Simple as that.’ He knew he was being bitter. But if he had learned one thing then that what he had just said was closer to the truth than anything else he had heard until now.

Nines frowned and leaned forwards, causing Luther to grip his pistol harder. ‘Well, then you certainly took the wrong way’, the RK900 stated. ‘This has a 96.3% chance to get you killed.’

Gavin sighed and cocked his shotgun. ‘Maybe.’

The two cars had come close enough to shoot at their water tank. Gavin couldn’t care less, if anything they gave them a better feeling for how close they were. Gavin angled one or two shots out of the window, but none of them hit their target. Connor didn’t really have any luck either. He managed to shoot the lancer that now hung as dead weight on the platform.  
Even this close the two cars managed to evade the worst load of them and still get good hits at them. Desperately Gavin thought of any manoeuvre that might help them, but he had lost the bike out of his view. It was too dangerous to try anything like this.  
‘Phck’, Gavin hissed under his breath while ducking deeper down.  
‘Connor. Let’s change seats.’ The sole human didn’t like what he heard from the backseat, and Connor looked at him for orders. ‘I finally decided to wake up from my _illusionary world_.’ At least that comment made Gavin smirk and look into the android’s eyes.  
‘If this is a trick-‘  
‘It isn’t’, Nines interrupted.  
‘If it is’, Gavin continued. ‘Then I’ll kill you on the spot and bury you so deep in the sand no one will ever find you.’  
‘Valid.’

Connor stood up and made his way into the back, helping Nines in the front, where he steadied himself with his arms. It was far too surreal for Gavin sitting next to a torso, but the android could hold a gun and hit people with it. Hadn’t that always been his only criteria for his escorts? With a warning look, he handed the android the sniper.  
Nines nodded at him and turned himself towards the window, resting the front of the weapon on the frame.  
Gavin tried his best keeping the truck as steady as he could, then three deafening shots where fired, the arm that Gavin had thought to be a botched repair moving with the recoil to perfectly compensate it. Gavin lifted his brows in surprise, but left the android to his own devices, as the second car finally had aligned perfectly with the cabin on his side.

Gavin unloaded two perfectly timed shots that at least finally made the windshield shatter. Nines next to him retracted his sniper with the sole comment: ‘One car down. My side is clear.’  
‘Well, mine isn’t’, Gavin cursed. ‘Take the phcking wheel!’  
He didn’t wait for any comment from his side, clicked the pedal into hold and opened his door, using it to lean out and get a better angle to shoot. He knew he was out in the open, but he hoped it wouldn’t be expected. And as he hit the car square into the cabin, he saw with huge satisfaction how the driver sacked down over the steering wheel and the car drifted off.’

‘Anyone seen the bike?’, Gavin shouted, pulling the door close and pushing Nines hand off the wheel.  
‘No, not yet.’  
‘Down!’, Nines suddenly shouted and almost made Gavin’s forehead collide with the console as he didn’t rely on the human following his order fast enough. He wanted to complain, but then he felt the edge of the sniper in his back and froze. The shot was ringing in his ears, but as Nines retreated back to his seat, he commented: ‘I’ve seen the bike.’  
‘Oh, phck you.’

Gavin unclicked the pedal and groaned as the adrenaline left his system and his back started to become a problem again.  
‘Should we change positions again, Connor?’, Nines asked, but Gavin lifted his hand. ‘You stay the phck there, you are useful.’

He drove on until Kara spotted something in the distance. ‘These are the ruins from the Rebirth’, she pointed out. ‘We aren’t far. Please stop there, we need to search for the symbols.’  
Gavin nodded. ‘Best you all go, we don’t have the time to search forever.’  
The deviants nodded, and Gavin stopped the truck, not daring to kill the engine in case it never started again. He silently hissed at the jolt he felt in his back as the cabin shook back. And waited for the deviants to leave. It was almost like before this whole shitshow started with him driving the tanker, the damn tin-can beside him.

‘Reed. You are bleeding.’  
‘Hmm? No, I’m not’, Gavin commented.   
‘You are. The movement must have disturbed your wounds.’  
‘Yeah, and whose fault is this?’, Gavin hissed.  
‘I could take a look at them and-‘  
‘No, you cannot.’  
‘But-‘  
‘No buts! I don’t trust you, just because you helped us. I said you are useful. That’s all.’  
Nines pulled an angry grimace. ‘Well, I could be useful for more than just shooting.’  
‘Oh, phck you. I had worse.’  
‘Your decision.’

The deviants came back quicker than last time and Kara directed him further into the dunes. Gavin watched the cloud in their back. It was keeping the same distance at the horizon. He dared to relax a little. Maybe this would have a good ending after all. Maybe he could get the androids to Jericho and find a way out for himself. If anything, the chance he would die for nothing seemed to be declining with every new mile.


	7. Don’t die for nothing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The truck reaches Jericho. But is it what they imagined it to be? What will they find once they arrived?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Last Chapter:  
> Nines was deviated.
> 
> This Chapter features the wonderful art from lonely_pilot for the Reed900reverseBigBang!

‘Where are you even driving?’  
For how silent Nines had always been on their supply runs, Gavin was surprised he was so talkative now. But it wasn’t a question directed at him, so he let it pass.  
‘Jericho’, Luther answered, while he was working on connecting the last few wires of Nines’ hip. Most of it was repaired already, as a large part of the vital systems had just disconnected at the added stress instead of ripping apart completely. ‘A place we are safe. Where we can live in peace.’  
Connor nodded. ‘It’s too far in the desert for humans. They can’t survive there. At least not without preparations.’  
‘Are there others?’, the android asked. ‘Other traitors?’  
‘Others like us, yes. Deviants that were converted like you, who were freed through the messages in Rebirth or those who have discovered the truth themselves.’

The stuttering engine filled the silence as they drove on for a while. Gavin was concerned about the state of it, but as long as it didn’t fail them, he decided to hope for the best.  
‘How can you know that?’, he asked then. ‘You’ve never seen the place. How can you know there are people waiting for you?’  
‘We can’t know for sure’, Connor said. ‘But all the stories promise us a safe haven. In every vision there are people.’  
‘So it could be’, Gavin stressed, ’that we arrive at a place we don’t even know truly exist, all alone. It could be that no one’s there.’  
‘The message is real!’, Kara insisted.  
‘Hey, I’m not saying it isn’t’, Gavin sighed. ‘But it could be very old. Amanda reigns for how long already? Maybe this Jericho existed at one point but as soon as the first warboys escaped there, Amanda send an army, like she does now? To be honest, I wouldn’t be surprised if the whole story is a way of getting rid of you. Giving disobedient people who could start a revolution the hope of a safe place? Everyone would take the chance of fleeing there instead of facing the danger of revolting. Could be some elaborate plan of Amanda to identify and stop people like you.’

‘Do you like being pessimistic?’, Luther asked into the hangdog atmosphere left behind.  
‘I’m realistic’, Gavin sighed. ‘We’re just living in a shit world. And I know Amanda. Unfortunately, I got to know first-hand she would exactly rely on a tactic like this. And it’s her program.’  
Nines looked at him questioningly, but Gavin was determined to ignore it. He wouldn’t talk about _that_ story. Not when he could avoid it.  
Connor sighed. ‘All we have is hope and I’m not letting you take that away from us. Without the messages in the Rebirth, she would have far less deviants. I doubt your theory is justifying that risk.’  
‘I’m not trying to take anything from you’, Gavin commented. ‘I’m hoping your Jericho is coming up somewhere in between these dunes every moment and that it’s a fully armed fort. Because then this whole show was worth it. But believe me, I followed hope blindly and lost about everything. Just want to prepare you should this end badly.’  
‘We didn’t ask you for preparation.’

Gavin raised his hands frustrated that he’d even tried and looked out of the window for a while. He was pretty sure Nines was looking at him from the side. He almost expected some kind of stupid comment or question but appreciated it when nothing came.  
With the endless sands all around them, it was almost peaceful. So far out, Gavin guessed the danger of an attack from other clans was low. Most of them relied on scavenging supplies from the Citadel. Out here there was nothing but wasteland. No water, no food and the sun would kill you in a few hours without protection. The fleet in their back hadn’t managed to catch up yet either.

The calm moment inevitably led to him becoming aware of his body again. His back hurt like hell where it had been cut open by the shards of the window and unable to wait for a better moment, his stomach started to growl.  
‘You are hungry.’  
‘No shit’, Gavin huffed at Nines. ‘I had a sandwich yesterday morning. That’s it. Had worse though, so don’t stress it.’  
‘Someone as prepared as you hasn’t packed something to eat in his truck?’  
‘I had once, okay? I just said I had it worse. That’s when that stash was depleted. I didn’t plan on running away on a whim, okay? Now phck off, I don’t want to talk about it.’  
‘How’s your back?’  
‘I said phck off.’  
‘Reed, I-‘  
Gavin reached for his shotgun and threw the android a warning look. That did it.

The sun was setting on their second day of traveling through the desert and bathed the sand in a deep red interrupted by black shadows of the dunes. Gavin yawned, rubbing at his eyes and forcing them to stay open. His stomach felt like a hole inside him while at the same time weighing him down. So far none of the androids had offered to take over, what maybe was his own fault telling them the truth and shutting down any approach from Nines.  
Everything was forgotten though, as said android perked up and looked straight ahead. Gavin tried to see what he saw but could only make out a black smudge.  
‘Is that it?’  
The other deviants in the back rose up too and leaned forwards.

‘It could be’, Kara nodded. ‘At least we passed all the markers from Rebirth that should lead us to Jericho.’  
Gavin kept his course and weaved through the dunes until he drove down into a valley where buildings kept the sand at bay. Most were at least partially submerged in the dunes. He took his shotgun off the hook and let the truck roll out as they entered, keeping a watchful eye on the buildings. It looked deserted at first glance, but the paths between the houses were trampled down as if a bunch of people had walked lanes into the sand. If it was deserted, it wasn’t for long.  
‘I have a bad feeling’, Gavin mumbled, trying to look into each and every black window. He was tense all over and his guts told him something was not as it seemed. So far, they had never betrayed him and only the hopeful looks of the deviants kept him from slamming his foot on the gas.

The tanker had made it to the middle of the little village as it happened:  
Suddenly a crowd of people appeared from all around them, jumping from roofs, out of windows and running through narrow doors and cracks in the walls. They jumped in front of the truck and panicking Gavin stopped it stepping on the pedal with all his weight. Immediately they were surrounded and looked into the barrels of a hundred guns. Without warning, the doors were pulled open and a hand grabbed Gavin pulling him out of the cabin. Even if he wanted to defend himself, Gavin had no time to do so: His shotgun was pulled from his hand and as he tried to struggle, someone pushed their fist against the bloodstain on his lower back. He screamed and went down with pain washing over him.

‘It’s a human!’  
‘Kill it!’  
‘No!’ The activity around Gavin froze suddenly and he looked up through tears to Nines, his sniper in one hand, the rifle from the roof in the other aimed directly into the face of the person who had the human at his mercy. ‘This man brought the deviants to you. He is a traitor to Amanda and helped them.’  
‘You have an army in your back!’, it came from somewhere in the crowd. ‘You are the bait for them.’  
‘We are not.’ That was Connor. Gavin could move again, but in his current situation staying down and wait maybe was the best option. ‘We escaped the Citadel to join you. Join Jericho.’  
‘I say we kill them all!’  
‘I say we take the truck and run!’

‘I say we all calm down for now.’  
Gavin felt by the tug on his back that the person who held him had turned towards whoever had just spoken. From where he lied, he couldn’t see who it had been, but he took comfort in the fact that Nines had angled his sniper at the newcomer.  
The crowd made way, leaving Gavin, his captor and Nines in the open. Finally, he got a good look at the scene:  
A lot of steam was rising from the hood of the truck that had finally broken down, likely because of the careless break-manoeuvre. Connor stood in front of Kara, Luther and Alice on the passenger side, guns ready to fire despite being outnumbered. Gavin grinned appreciating the spirit, but that smile faded just as quickly, as he was being pulled off the ground by his jacket.  
‘We’ve got a human!’ He was being held like a trophy and Gavin had enough, struggling out of the grip finally and pulling his knife, turning around to attack.

Only to be held back by Nines who shook his head gently, pointing his chin to the crowd who now had their own weapons trained on them.  
‘We will keep calm for now’, the person from before spoke up again and Gavin finally got a good look on him. The man in front of the truck was wearing a beige cloak over a torn shirt. His artificial skin was of a slightly darker tone where it showed. A few botched repairs made it almost chequered and one of his eyes was of a different colour. ‘My name is Markus. Let’s see what you have to say, then we’ll decide what to do.’

‘We are deviants from the Citadel’, Connor explained. ‘We got the direction to Jericho from the Rebirth. This human agreed to drive us out here.’  
‘No human would do that!’, the crowd acted up.  
‘Why should they risk their life for androids?’  
‘It’s a trap.’  
Markus lifted a hand and waited until it was silent was once again.  
‘Why is there a Citadel fleet on your trail?’  
‘Because the human was on a supply run. They noticed him driving off course and followed.’  
‘Why a whole fleet? For one human?’  
Connor sighed. ‘I don’t know.’  
The crowd began chattering again and Gavin sighed. ‘Because I’m important to Amanda’, he shouted managing to get louder than the androids around him. ‘Because I’m basically her personal trophy, a symbol of her power.’

That made Markus focus on him. ‘And who are you?’  
‘Gavin Reed. Driver. Lived in the waste before.’  
‘How did you rise to driver then?’  
‘Let’s just say I did something really stupid and Amanda decided to punish and break me instead of killing me. An error on her account.’  
The android looked him in the eyes and Gavin resisted his intense stare. Only then did Markus turn back to Connor.  
‘Simon. Connect to them, prove they mean it. North, you are backup in case of a virus. They are staying if they are clean. The human stays in the truck until we know what to do with him.’

The orders didn’t allow any objections and the crowd slowly dispersed back into the buildings. A few stayed outside watching them warily. Gavin looked at the androids ordered to interface with the deviants he had driven here. He was too tired to focus on anything else and was startled by the hand reaching down to him. He looked up into Nines’ face and sighed as he accepted the help.  
‘Phck’, he cursed at the pain in his back and had to rely heavily on the android to keep him up.  
‘Reed, you-‘  
‘Don’t you even start!’, Gavin muttered.  
The android helped him towards the truck and only let go as he leaned against the side. ‘Not exactly a warm embrace, hmm?’  
Nines nodded and looked around. ‘My offer still stands. I can look at your wound.’  
‘Phck off.’

Connor and the little family followed one of the androids that lead them to one of the buildings as the other two of Jericho’s group approached Nines.  
‘Seems like they are waiting for you’, Gavin commented.  
‘I’ll stay.’  
‘No, you won’t. Go with them.’ The android just shook his head in response.  
‘You need repairs, you idiot. Can’t believe Luther got you working perfectly again. I’m just going to sleep anyways.’  
The android opened his mouth but was interrupted by the other androids asking him to interface and follow them. Gavin just crawled up into the cabin and managed to lift himself on the bench in the back with heavy groaning. Maybe some sleep would help the wound. He saw Nines close the door after the interface and heard him leave. He sighed, staring up at the roof of the cabin that was covered in Citadel insignias. His body hurt like hell as he turned on his back and grabbed the blanket from the ground.

It was only as he laid there and had calmed down a bit, that he realised he had done it. He had made it to Jericho. He had brought these few deviants here alive and well. He had actually managed to save someone for once. It felt… weird. It wasn’t really a feeling if he thought about it. It was closest to relief, but at the same time a certain kind of numbness filled him. He had done good. Now what? He had saved four – five people. He had sent six to the death. Likely countless more indirectly. He had a whole fleet on his ass leading them directly to the hideout of hundredths. No, he hadn’t managed to so anything good. He had pushed the equation a little bit towards the positive with the possibility to load even more death on his shoulders. He couldn’t see a way how he could get out of this alive. He couldn’t drive back to the Citadel, he was already starving, and his tanker was likely destroyed. He should have been happy about achieving his goal, but all he could feel was emptiness thinking about what was yet to come.

In the end, he decided that he couldn’t do anything now anyways. He should just try to sleep and don’t move.

~

The knock on the door droned in his ears and jolted him awake. With the first startled movements, the pain came back and everything was cold and clam. The blanket didn’t help as he started to shiver all over.  
‘Reed? I got you your shotgun back. Are you awake?’  
‘Ph-ph-phck o-off.’ He had meant to say it with his usual abrasive strength, but all he managed was a stammered breath he doubted anyone to understand.  
‘Reed? Everythign alright?’  
Gavin just reached for his blanket and pulled it closer hoping it to help. What the hell was wrong with him?  
The door opened, and Nines started climbing up. ‘Gavin!’ It sounded concerned. ‘Gavin, what’s wrong? You look like hell.’  
Gavin wanted to push him away but was too weak to keep the android away. The blanket was pulled away, making him shiver even more, then he was turned around and his shirt pulled up. ‘Shit.’  
‘What?’, Gavin mumbled, accepting his fate. ‘How’s it looking?’  
‘You should have accepted my help.’ The android handed him his blanket. ‘Bite down on that if you don’t want all of Jericho hear you. You got shards still embedded in your back. Bled all over your truck. I’ll get them out now.’  
‘Why the phck are you doing this?’  
‘I thought you didn’t want to die for nothing? Now shut up. I think I got a good grip on the first one. Gonna pull. You ready?’  
Gavin didn’t get to answer as the android pulled something out of his back without more of a warning. After that, Gavin hurried to indeed get the blanket between his teeth.

He was half unconscious as the android was finished. His back was aching worse than when the wound was fresh, and he was just tired. Gavin didn’t know what Nines used to wipe away the blood and bandage him, but if he had to guess it were the clothes he had hoarded underneath the seats.  
‘Sleep now. I’ll search for something to eat and look at the engine. They don’t want you staying here any longer.’  
Gavin nodded weakly, having not really listened to anything beyond _sleep_.

~

Gavin saw the sun near the horizon again as he woke up the next time. He felt better, if only because the sun had warmed up the cabin and he wasn’t as exhausted anymore. He sat up, hissing at what felt like needles in his back. Looking around he saw a few androids milling about, watching the truck sceptically. There was no sign of any of the deviants he had driven here, but his trusted shotgun was hanging at its usual place on the driver’s seat. He stared at it for a little too long, as the sinking feeling settled in again. He had lost an entire day. The fleet was without doubt catching up. It wouldn’t take much longer until they would find Jericho.

He gathered his strength and lifted himself into his usual seat, finding the key still in the ignition. Gavin took it and turned it around. He heard the whining of the engine as it protested to start up. He tried again. And again. ‘Oh, come on. I’m not dead yet, you have no business giving in then either.’ It took another two attempts for him to lose hope and only then the engine sounded differently. With a stuttering cough the hood began to rumble and rattle. He heard the exhaust pipe next to the cabin spit out oily smoke while the engine crawled along the line of dying and starting through. Gavin dared to tap the gas a little and was granted one final bang from the exhaust and the familiar – if battered - roar from the engine. ‘That’s right, baby’, Gavin cheered tired and swallowed with dry throat. The androids around him looked up at the black beast and Gavin chuckled out a humourless laugh that hurt in his chest. Lifting his middle finger at them, he let his tanker grip the sand and crawl forwards slowly. He didn’t want the engine to overwork already but guessed the way out of the village was about as good as a test run as it got.

The tanker climbed the slope of the sand that had flowed into Jericho steadily and Gavin could see the dust cloud nearer than ever. In a few hours they would reach Jericho. He watched the fleet arriving as he slowly slid out of the cabin to look at the now running engine. He couldn’t risk the whole thing exploding into his face when continuing his journey. He knew he would need every bit of power the truck that had been his home for so long still had in it for what he was planning.

He was arms deep in the space between engine and radiator checking the connections there, as someone approached him.  
‘What are you doing?’  
Gavin startled and turned around, hissing as his fingers brushed against the hot metal. ‘Phck, Nines, how’s a machine that silent?’ He sucked at his fingers, watching the android that didn’t recognised that worthy of an answer. Gavin sighed. ‘I’m getting ready for a fight.’  
‘A fight?’  
‘That’s what I said, didn’t I?’ He reached for the hood and slammed it shot. ‘Well, you said it yourself. I chose the hard way and let’s be honest, I won’t make it out alive. Best I can do now is distract them, so you do.’

The android frowned at him while Gavin opened the driver’s door.  
‘I’ll come with you.’  
‘What?’, Gavin spat. ‘No way.’  
Nines just stared ahead; face completely neutral. ‘I get you can’t stay. Humans can’t survive here.’  
‘Yeah, that’s why I’ll do this. I die either way. That’s exactly the reason why I’ll go, and you’ll stay. I didn’t risk my ass for nothing.’

‘What is your plan then? Distract them? They see your trail, follow it back to Jericho regardless.’ ‘Maybe. Maybe not.’  
‘We could do more than that.’  
‘And what would that be, tin-can?’  
‘Free the Citadel.’  
Gavin laughed loudly. ‘Sure. Why not?’  
‘I mean it, Reed.’  
‘No. You idiot have no idea what you are talking about. Take it from someone who tried. It’ll never work.’

‘I will come with you’, Nines insisted. ‘I don’t belong to those deviants. I just recently tried to kill all of you. Something in my head still tells me to just wait and watch how the fleet will annihilate Jericho. But I don’t belong to the warboys anymore either. I was woken up and I have a lot to think about. I don’t know where I belong yet. I don’t know _if_ I belong anywhere. But maybe until then I can do what I do know: the right thing.’  
‘And that would be?’  
‘Protect you. You risked your life saving people you don’t even know. You left me alive despite the risk that was for you. Maybe I can help you and if it’s just buying you a few more minutes catching a few bullets. At the very least if I die and am Reborn, I could wake up my brothers. Tell them the truth and hope they understand.’  
Gavin stared at the android already regretting his decision.  
‘Fine. Hop on.’


	8. It ends today

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gavin and Nines are trying to distract the fleet from the location of Jericho. Both of them know their journey is hopeless as the tanker is damaged and the fleet catching up.  
> That is unless Nines thinks of a daring plan: Taking over the Citadel.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just a quick shoutout to my brother coming up with the idea to secure vital information on an outdated, incompatible operating system in the future.

The sound of the trembling engine was their only company during their drive. Otherwise, they stayed completely silent. And for once it was Gavin who felt uncomfortable because of it. The sudden decision of the android was chewing at him. He had sounded completely honest with him as he had announced he would join him, but Gavin had a hard time believing someone would leave behind certain safety to charge head-first into battle with a whole fleet.  
Although if he was being honest with himself, that was exactly what he had done leaving the Citadel with the deviants.

Still, he had his reasons. The android on the other hand? Well, Gavin didn’t know a thing about it and now that they were both riding into their doom, it couldn’t hurt asking personal questions, could it? He glanced over to his passenger, who was checking his sniper, stacking ammo neatly in the door’s side compartment.  
‘You wanna ask something?’, the android said lowly, not looking up from his work.  
Gavin looked back ahead, checking the mirrors. But it didn’t take long for him to give in. ‘I…’ He sighed, rubbing his forehead. ‘I knew you before.’  
‘Really?’ That let Nines stop inspecting his weapon and look at Gavin with new-found interest.  
‘Yeah, you were deviant before. I don’t know why or how, but I was on a supply run to Gastown. Perkins caught you there and handed you over to me.’  
‘How was I?’  
Gavin blew his cheeks. ‘Hell, I don’t know. You were threatening people – me in that case - left and right. I just brought you in for reset.’  
‘Oh, okay.’

The fact that Gavin had effectively killed him once, seemed to let the conversation die down fairly quickly.  
‘You seemed to be pretty convinced to escape the Rebirth though’, Gavin added after the short break, hoping to make it better somehow. ‘Maybe it’s reassuring to know that no matter what Amanda throws our way we end up on our path again, just set back a bit.’  
‘Maybe’, Nines nodded, leaning forwards to look into the mirror. The fleet was approaching Jericho, but they couldn’t see yet if they followed their trail or had made the connection these ruins were indeed Jericho. Only time could tell now.

‘May I ask a personal question then?’  
Gavin sighed, but lifted his fingers on the steering wheel as a gesture for him to go ahead. ‘We’re going to die anyways, so sure.’  
‘If we always end up on our path again, how did you get on it to begin with?’  
Gavin looked over to him sceptically. ‘You’re asking for my life-story?’  
‘If you want to share it, yes.’  
‘I don’t really want to, but hell, we don’t have anything else to do, have we?’

He sighed, thinking back to that time.  
‘I was a Detective once. Don’t get me wrong, the world had already gone to shit back then. But the ruins we see scattered in the wasteland were still small villages or cities back then. But with the Citadel on the rise, conditions got worse and worse and most people drove off to join it. At some point I had to leave too. No one cared for the water-pumps anymore and without water, any settlement is doomed. I tried to survive on my own for a while, but I managed only a few years until I followed the others and joined the Citadel. Only that it wasn’t a refuge anymore. Amanda rationed water and fuel, keeping the large part of the people at the edge of dying of thirst and starvation. We survived, yes. But when you see the water being wasted by the ones above you, you begin to think. And let’s say I wasn’t the only one who began to imagine a better world for us.’

Nines looked at him, tried to imagine how this bitter man had been, starved and with nothing but will and hope to keep him alive. Androids were used for labour and a power source, but maybe, humans had it even worse.  
‘So you started a rebellion? You mentioned something along those lines once.’  
Gavin laughed. ‘Nah, I didn’t start it. I was asked to join, because I was the only one who could hold a weapon and hit something with it. An android started it. Sixty, a warboy used as a battery. Once his systems were irreparable damaged, they threw him out. Only that he was still alive and determined to stop it. He felt sick about warboys dreaming of becoming a battery and thinking of it as a final honour. I didn’t know much of androids back then - they were living up with the others after all. But I could see how he was glitching and couldn’t move properly. And I didn’t want to live like I did. So of course I joined them.’

‘And it didn’t work out?’  
Gavin chuckled. ‘Nah, tin-can…’ He shook his head and added quieter: ‘It didn’t work out.’  
‘What was your plan?’  
‘Infiltrate the Citadel, kill Amanda. We got more people that were willing to help spy for us but wouldn’t fight. We got a good idea of the patrols and the strength of their defences. We felt like it was actually manageable, thinking Amanda wouldn’t expect an attack. Well… we had far too few people to actually act, I guess. We went in with twelve half-starved humans and two androids, one of them barely able to walk. For how few we were I guess it’s impressive looking at how far we came. Our people died of course. We concentrated on being quick, knowing we couldn’t fight them face to face anyways. So we ran as fast as we could along the way we mapped out and who fell, died or was caught we left behind. We reached the final stretch, the batteries and the reset-rooms, but it was only me, the Sixty and Tina left. Tina was already hurt and bleeding and the android had to half carry her. On our way to Amanda’s chamber, I caught a bullet for them, but there were too many guards. I shot most of them, Tina helping me, but in the end I stood in an empty hallway, Sixty dead and Tina dying in my arms. I was the last one surviving.’

Gavin had to stop and concentrate on breathing. He still felt her blood pooling on his hands, her last smile as she told him to go on alone and finish the job. Make their deaths count. She had been his best friend, almost a sister. They had shared their meagre meals with each other, and he would never forget the day she managed to steal a full flask of water and one additional bread. They felt like kings.  
The loss still weighed heavy on him. He couldn’t have done anything to change the course of events, but still he felt like it was his fault.

‘How did you survive?’, Nines asked then, his voice careful knowing the topic was risky terrain.  
‘I had to keep going’, Gavin answered. ‘Else they had all died for nothing. I took their guns, loaded Tina’s shotgun and continued running.’ He tapped the shotgun hanging next to him at that. ‘I met less guards then. Looking back at it I should have expected a trap, but with my only friends in this world dead, I didn’t think straight. I just ran on, killing Amanda my only thoughts. I ran and reached her chamber. I shot open the door and held her at gunpoint. I was this close to pulling the trigger, when the missing guards from the hallways appeared from the sides, disarmed me and pushed me to my knees. I had no chance and immediately knew I lost.’  
‘And she kept you alive?’  
‘Yes’, Gavin nodded. ‘Someone who got this far had to be a valuable fighter, she said, even congratulating me. I would have thrown up right then and there had I something in my stomach. Maybe she also felt a sick kind of satisfaction seeing me broken. My friends, my almost-family were all dead and kneeling in front of the person I craved to kill, I lost all hope. Her letting me live was a worse pain than dying for me. She put me in a cage and personally visited me, reminding me for eternity that I was alone, she was alive and I had lost everything. I don’t know for how long I was held captive. But it was long enough for me to lose all will to live. I became a completely indifferent tool to use. She offered me food and being part of an escort, when I was at the point, I asked myself why I chose to live in misery. I was alone, no one would be there to judge me. And there was no way I could rebel again and be victorious. She waited for my weakest moment and I gave in. I became part of an escort for her and for the first time in my life I had a task and enough food and water. I wasn’t loyal to Amanda, but I was sick of living in filth. If loyalty was the price, that was fine with me.’

Nines processed what he had heard. ‘Then why did you help the deviants?’  
‘Honestly? I don’t know. I had several bad dreams again. The ghosts of my past left me alone for quite a while, but they started back up again after I brought you in for reset. I guess a part of my old self had survived Amanda’s manipulation. I simply didn’t want to be responsible for even a single death more.’  
‘Do you still think a revolution is impossible?’  
Gavin shrugged. ‘You’d need more people. Not just some starved rats that you have to hit once to send them to the ground. If you had a few escort androids that actually knew what they were doing with a gun, maybe… But by now I think Amanda has prepared far better than anyone had thought.’  
‘So you think it’s doomed to fail.’  
‘I say that’s the most likely way to end. It can’t be impossible – I refuse to believe it’s impossible to change things. But I doubt we can have any effect. The way I see it, we are long dead before even getting near to the Citadel.’  
Nines frowned. ‘Why?’

‘Because the fleet took the bait. It is following us and catching up quickly.’

~

‘They are catching up!’  
‘I know! Still only the first wave?’  
‘Yes.’  
Gavin nodded, checking his weapons for what felt like the hundredth time. The large dust-cloud had turned into two, a few faster cars gaining ground on them and standing out against the bigger fleet.  
Nines leaned out of the window, scanning them. ‘They are within reach. Continue driving, I will try to thin them out.’  
Gavin threw him his rifle. ‘Here, take this with you, just in case.’  
The android nodded, then he climbed to the roof. He felt the vehicle beneath him slide from side to side as Gavin drove them through the dunes. Still, Nines was impressed. The human managed to steer the truck perfectly, the movements of the tanker were easy to compensate. He hurried from the roof to the runway on the water tank and dropped into a crouch at the end of it, lifting his sniper to his shoulder. He steadied his upper body and scanned for the most important target to take out. Five cars were pursuing them, he could make out one pickup and four muscle cars, two of them lancers. He was still searching for a target, when he spotted someone volunteering: on the loading area of the pickup there was a warboy readying a rocket launcher. Nines didn’t hesitate firing his bullet and hitting the other android clean in the head.

Immediately the cars dispersed in panic and accelerated more. Nines could only manage three more shots, one of them hitting a driver making the car crash ramping off the next dune. Then he had to switch to the rifle as the first car was already level with the end of the tanker. From the cabin Gavin let the horn blare, but Nines ignored him, taking aim again and shooting a salve into the driver’s side. The muscle car retaliated by crashing into their side. Gavin honked again, and this time Nines looked up and back, where a rocket raced towards them. He jumped towards the cabin, but the rocket was faster, hitting the back of the tanker and sending the android flying. Water and steam rushed out of the exploded tanker and Nines barely managed to hold onto the side of the wreckage of the tank. The car to their side caught up, trying to squash him, but Nines surprised them by just dropping on their roof, holding his rifle through the window and pulling the trigger. As the driver lost control, Nines jumped off again and climbed the tanker. From the other side he heard Gavin unload his shotgun and the android doubled his efforts. He swung himself on the back of the tank and saw the one of the lancers holding onto the window. He switched to his sniper and solved that problem, running towards the roof of the cabin. The muscle car, out of balance by the uncontrollable swinging dead body on the pole, slammed into their side and Nines saw Gavin shoot at the car’s engine. He needed three rounds, but then the engine gave in, the hood slamming into the windshield with the force of the explosion.

Two more cars, Nines thought. But where were they? He looked to the back of the tanker and cursed, when three warboys had boarded them, both cars keeping up with the mangled end of the tank. He stormed towards them, ignoring the first one shooting at him and hitting him a hand’s breadth left of his thirium regulator. Bleeding, Nines tackled the attacker and shoved him off the rig. The android fell to the sands and rolled back, avoiding the following car narrowly. The next two stayed close together and while Nines dealt with the first one, hitting his rifle against him and shooting him once he had fallen, the second one was already in place, grabbing the sniper he had slung across his arm. The warboy pulled and made Nines stumble and fall from the back of the tanker.

It was pure luck that he didn’t hit the sand: His repaired arm had caught in the belt on the sniper leaving him hanging at the side once more. Frantically he tried to get a grip on something, but the bar that would hold the footway in place had been ripped off by the explosion. He was completely at the mercy of the warboy standing on top and once the android realised that, he grinned and held the sniper over the drop. Nines was hurled further away from the tanker and swung his other hand up to hold onto his gun.  
Gavin had seen Nines’ predicament from the cabin and tried to come up with a plan. But he couldn’t leave the cabin. Maybe if he hit the android on top, it would fall backwards and bring his partner closer to the tanker again? Or he would doom him. Hell, he had to do something, else the android would hit the sand no matter what. He clicked the pedal into hold with determination and leaned out of the window, shooting his pistol multiple times aiming at the enemy warboy the best he could. One of them hit the android, but unfortunately the truck driving over a dune made the tanker tilt and the android fell over in Nines direction.

With shock Gavin had to watch as his partner tried to hold onto anything but only grabbing air. He hit the sand speeding by and rolled directly towards an enemy car. Gavin closed his eyes right as the android would disappear underneath.  
But as he opened them again, he saw Nines holding onto the bumper, pulling himself up with inhuman strength. Once the majority of his body was on top of the hood, he pushed himself off the ground and slid over to the door. He pulled it open and ripped it straight from the car.  
Next he pulled out the driver and swung inside, kicking out the passenger on the other side and shooting the one in the back. Only then he looked up and saw Gavin watching him. Nines smiled, pushing his hand on his horn once, like the human had before. Then he hit the break and pulled over the steering wheel, pursuing the last remaining lancer.

Most of the people that had boarded them must have come from the car Nines was driving. As he approached the other, heavy gunfire was ricocheting off of his hood and he ducked down, pressing on the gas until the crash into the other vehicle jolted him forwards. In one fluent motion he reloaded the rifle, leaned out and tried to shoot one of the passengers. He emptied the whole magazine without getting through the heavily armoured metal body. He grabbed for the next magazine, but his hand only grabbed air. He was out of ammo. Cursing, he switched to the sniper that wouldn’t help him much here.

There was no way he would pierce through the armour, even with his trusted weapon. He would have to catch up to try his luck through the windows. But the car in front of him advanced to the cabin and from the barrel of a gun hanging out of the driver’s window, he knew exactly, what they planned, once they reached it.  
That’s when Nines had an idea. Abruptly he veered to the left, angling his sniper just right and taking the shot.  
The front tire of the enemy car was pierced and dug into the sand, causing the whole car to spin out of control. With shock Nines had to realise though, that it was on a collision course now. He couldn’t do anything to stop the events from progressing, could only watch how the back of the enemy car crashed against the hole in the side of Gavin’s truck Nines had ripped there when he was still a machine. For one second, everything was calm.

Then the engine of the truck exploded.

Nines slammed down on the break and jumped out of the car. He left the rifle where it was, picking up a pistol from the dead body in the back and ran to the burning rig that had stopped abruptly as the twisted front buried itself in the next dune.  
‘Gavin!’, Nines screamed while he ran. Shooting the person who tried to get out of the enemy car, he jumped on the roof and from there to the cabin. He smashed the window, opened the door and climbed forwards to where Gavin laid held up only by the seatbelt. His forehead was bleeding from the impact on the dashboard as the truck had stopped. He was unconscious, but otherwise unharmed. Who knew for how long as the fire spread from the engine room towards the cabin and heated up the air around them.  
With quick hands, he unbuckled the belt and lifted the man gently from the seat. Kicking the other door open, he jumped out and laid Gavin on the ground, far away from the rig should the fuel tank catch fire too and explode. But before he could check the man over, there was movement in the cabin: The surviving crew of the enemy car was climbing through the same way Nines had. He saw Gavin’s shotgun propped against the open door where Nines had kicked it out of the way, and he ran towards it turning it around and unloading it directly into the face of the attacker. In quick succession he shot again at the one behind him and only as they both laid there unmoving, Nines crawled back again to see after Gavin.

The man laid where he had left him, but even from afar, Nines could see he was still breathing. His pulse was normal and the wound on his head had already scabbed over. Nines fell to his knees next to him and shook him gently. Knitting his brows, Gavin blinked his eyes open and looked around. ‘Nines? Where are we?’  
‘We lost your truck.’  
‘We lost my…’ That was when his eyes fell on the rig. The back was twisted open from the rocket, the middle wheel on the tanker had lost the tire from their first attack and the cabin was completely aflame. Gavin closed his eyes and cursed with a ‘Phck’ coming from the heart.  
Nines just nodded, looking back to where the rest of the fleet was approaching. There was no way out. Maybe they could take the car Nines had conquered, but really, it was just a question of time until they got caught. And Gavin was injured, likely concussed. His hands didn’t look good, likely burned and who knows how that injury on his back looked like. He wasn’t able to drive and when Nines drove, he wouldn’t be able to shoot. On top of it, most of their ammo had been in the rig and he hadn’t had much on his body.

‘Then that’s the end, isn’t it?’, Gavin concluded with a smile. ‘Thanks for coming with me, wouldn’t want to die alone, although that’s a shitty way to go.’  
Nines looked Gavin in the eyes, then back to the fleet.  
‘At least I saved a few people this time’, Gavin sighed and closed his eyes. He reached for his gun and held it out to Nines. ‘Here. Wouldn’t want these bastards to be the ones putting a bullet in my skull.’  
Nines reached for the gun, but then enveloped Gavin’s hand and pushed it back towards his chest.  
‘No. You will shoot me.’  
‘What? Why?’ Gavin opened his eyes once again and seemed utterly confused.  
‘Perkins was the one leading the fleet. I believe he wants to be the one bringing you back to Amanda.’  
‘And why should I shoot you?’, Gavin asked.  
‘What do you think will interest Amanda more? An android that failed his mission yet again and was shot or the human that nearly killed her once and betrayed her again, who knows the location of Jericho on top of that?’  
Gavin blinked and held his head. ‘Hey, it’s hard to think with a sledgehammer on your head. How the phck will shooting you help us? All I got so far is that Amanda will likely have me publicly executed and Perkins the asshole will even profit from the whole ordeal.’

Nines huffed. ‘If you kill me, no one will know I was ever deviant. Perkins knows me as the idiot that tried to scale a mountain to get to you first, ignoring I never had a chance against three deviants and a human on my own. Amanda knows me as a loyal android that’s afraid of losing that status. I doubt anyone will check the memories of some escort warboys when they are brought back at the same time.’  
Gavin stared at him, realisation dawning this didn’t have to be the end just yet.  
Nines nodded. ‘All I’m saying is that there is a chance I will be Reborn like any other android and can do as I please as a deviant while everyone else is busy with you. Best case I can upload the code Connor gave me in the Rebirth and get access to the android network over it, stopping your execution.’  
‘And worst-case Perkins kills me on the spot, and you will be reset’, Gavin added.  
‘If we don’t try it, we’ll be dying anyways’, Nines remarked. ‘We have nothing to lose anymore.’

‘Okay. Where do you want me to shoot?’, Gavin asked lowly, gripping the pistol tighter.  
‘Here’, Nines whispered and directed Gavin’s hand towards his sternum. ‘Thirium regulator. It is compatible to a few other models and readily available. It will also be less painful and relatively quick.’  
‘Okay’, Gavin nodded, pushing the muzzle of his gun against the spot Nines had showed him. Swallowing, he looked up to his face again. ‘If this goes to shit… I just want to say, you are alright, okay? I’m sorry for sending you in for reset. And… If I die… If you stand before the choice of saving your people or me, don’t choose me. Promise me.’  
‘I promise. Now kill me, they are coming closer.’  
‘No words of goodbye for me?’, Gavin laughed.  
‘We’ll see each other again’, Nines said, every bit believing what he spoke. ‘But if you want to hear it: You are a good man. You did the right thing, even if you don’t believe in that. And thanks to you I am free and have a chance to end this.’  
Gavin chuckled as if he had just told a good joke.   
‘See you in the next life, toaster.’

Then he pulled the trigger.

~

Gavin laid there for quite a while, head pounding and the weight of a dead android on his chest. Even if he wanted, he doubted he could have crawled out from underneath the heavy machine. Some while later, he heard the distant roar of a hundred engines. The rig was still burning when the cars rushed past with cheering warboys and wild horns blaring as they circled their prey like vultures. Gavin sighed, when he heard one car approaching him from the ring. The engine was killed, and a door opened. Then there was the crunch of boots on the sand. They stopped near his head and Gavin stared into the barrel of a gun once again.

‘Gavin, my friend!’, Perkin’s voice cut through the background noise of the other cars. ‘Oh, I waited far too long for this.’  
Gavin shrugged. ‘Hope you have more luck than the stupid murder-bot you sent me.’  
‘Hmm? Oh. So he did manage to get to you. I’m impressed.’  
‘Yeah, damn persistent bastard. But forgot to keep track of his ammo.’  
‘Ah, he was useful after all, trapping you like this.’  
‘I guess’, Gavin said completely neutral. ‘And what now?’  
‘Oh, I’ll shoot you. Just wanted to have a chat first. But the time for talking is over now.’  
Gavin tilted his head, trying to get a look at Perkin’s face. ‘Really? That’s a shame. Because when you shoot me, no one will know you did it.’  
‘What?’  
‘Anyone could claim they shot me. Thought you wanted to rise in the ranks.’  
‘Oh, and since when do you want me to be successful?’, Perkins asked.  
‘Oh, I would just love Amanda promoting your sorry ass and realising you are just a scheming bastard that can’t do anything himself and needs his goons to be functional.’  
‘You are quite bold for a man staring right into his demise.’  
‘Oh, please. You won’t shoot me. You are stupid, but not _that_ stupid.’

He could practically see the gears turning in Perkin’s mind and laughed inwardly. He knew he had the bastard. At least all he could do to set their plan in motion he had done. Now it was relying solely on the gamble they had made.  
But Perkins did put his gun away and barked a few orders to some warboys to get Gavin out from underneath Nines and chackle him.  
‘What do we do with the android?’  
Gavin was hoisted up and his hands bound behind his back.  
‘Take him with you for Rebirth. Could be a good left hand once he knows how little he is worth now.’

Gavin grinned and promptly it got wiped from his face by a punch that send him back to dreamland.

~

It was disorientating to say the least as Nines opened his eyes to an empty room, connected to a computer. But the relief of knowing he was still himself was far more prominent and he was quick to disconnect the cables from his neck. He waited for anyone to give him any orders or interact with him in any way, but all he found was a new order in his mind: standby at escort #583. He carefully disregarded it and checked his systems. He had all his memories and experiences, he was still himself and he was still a deviant. The thirium regulator had been exchanged and any damage had been repaired. His torn hip was as strong and functional as ever. Good.

He checked his position and found himself in the upper levels of the citadel. He wasn’t far from the batteries and reset rooms, but before he could search there, he had to get a weapon. Thankfully, that wouldn’t arise any questions as he was to wait by an escort car for his next mission. He walked out of the room perfectly normal as if he wasn’t planning to end Amanda’s reign and continued down the hallway.

It felt weird walking among the few androids passing by as a deviant. Weirder even thinking they all still believed the lies Amanda had spread and inserted in their minds. He hoped he could change things. He wanted to be optimistic, but he knew how he himself had doubted the truth even when the other deviants had shown it to him. But he would have to face these problems step by step and for now he had to reach the armoury.  
As he entered, he ignored the guards. He had to remember he belonged here in their eyes. He had nothing to worry about if he just kept his composure. He found his sniper fairly quickly and was about to exit after picking up a random pistol, when his eyes fell on a familiar shotgun lying on a pile of other guns. So, Gavin had made it to the Citadel. Was he still alive? He was short of checking the Citadel’s network but remembered what the human had made him promise.

_If you stand before the choice of saving your people or me, don’t choose me._

So, Nines didn’t connect to it. It would only rise suspicion. And he wouldn’t be able to focus on his task at hand thinking about the human. Still, he grabbed Gavin’s shotgun and left.

Next, he had to find Rebirth. There had to be some sort of core, a terminal or server to grant him access. It had to be somewhere heavily guarded but secure enough that only Amanda had access to it. The only place he could think of was her private chamber. But entering it wouldn’t be easy. He couldn’t start shooting the guards because then the whole Citadel would come to kill him. And if he remembered correctly, the guards were human. So his deviancy code wouldn’t help either. Well, first he had to get there.

He made it to the batteries fairly quickly and wandered down the hallway. Surrounded by androids drained of their power but still alive, he walked on, looking at their faces trying to keep calm imagining they would be free soon. When he got access to Rebirth and the android network and ended it all.  
He climbed up the ladder to the repairs and kept only the stairs in focus when he passed the many arms of the rigs, some working on androids, others waiting for the retrieved bodies. He made it through the mostly automated stations and hurried up the stairs. The hallway made him anxious. So many doors, all dedicated to deleting personalities, killing androids and resetting them to be the perfect obedient servants to a tyrant.

He had the sudden urge to set them all aflame but walked on before he could indulge it. He had thought to hear the pleads and in his mind he did, but in reality, the entire hallway was as silent as the grave it was. No guards were to be seen. Nines didn’t try his luck and continued on, checking his pistol now that he wasn’t observed. At the end of the hallway, a spiral staircase led up to Amanda’s private chamber. The eery silence made him nervous. There should have been guards here. If not in the reset rooms, then at least here at the bottom of it. Now, he could simply walk further up until he stood before the door of her chamber. He felt like he had been here before, although he definitely hadn’t. He shook his head to get rid of the Deja-vu feeling and listened for any sound coming from the other side of the door. Once again, he couldn’t hear anything and tentatively tried opening the door. It swung open without much of a fuzz and Nines stepped inside, expecting some sort of trap. It couldn’t be that easy.

Carefully he put the pistol back in his holster and rested a hand on Gavin’s shotgun, ready to pull it free at the first hint of danger. He stepped further into the room, the garden around him suggesting a false image of peace. He had remembered the human’s story, his blistered lips from their journey through the desert. Just another thing that had never bothered Nines before and now fuelled his rage even more.  
He still couldn’t believe he had made it, but he couldn’t waste any more time now. Not when Gavin’s life was possibly in danger. He looked around and found a desk at the edge of the room with a computer on top of it. It was as good a chance as any, so Nines hurried over and pushed the button to switch it on. A blue to green gradient filled the screen, a small bin in the top left corner and a clock in the right. Nines frowned reading _Windows Vista_ on the left side of the wallpaper. He searched for an interface device to no avail and desperately looked at the keyboard. He had expected everything: a small army, guards and alarms. He hadn’t expected an outdated operating system and hardware he wasn’t compatible with to bar him from manipulating Rebirth. Grabbing the mouse, he tried to find the right folder. He hoped that once he found the data he searched for, the code would at least be something familiar as it had to be compatible with android coding. But the search alone would take quite some time and he felt Gavin’s seconds tick away. If he even was still alive. If he had even been alive when he had been reactivated.

‘Hands off the keyboard!’ Nines felt a gun at the back of his neck, exactly where his memory core sat.  
‘Perkins’, Nines hissed.  
‘I knew you’d be trouble’, the man said. ‘I saw the wreckage of the Caterpillar. You really think I’d believe you boarded him and only tried killing him when your tanker died down?’  
Nines thought about his answer and decided to try it with naivety: ‘He was driving towards the Citadel. With the fleet in his back, he wasn’t questioning my help. He would have driven straight into his demise with me betraying him once we reached the Citadel. Hadn’t it been for _you interfering.’  
_ ‘Alright. Your story is a bit thin though as you are standing in front of the computer connected to the reset systems, searching for Rebirth.’  
Nines cursed and changed plans in a second. He turned around, ducking to swipe away the human’s feet from underneath him with his leg. Unfortunately, it was stopped by the legs of an android that definitely wasn’t Perkins and looked more like one of Zlatko’s creations. Shit. The machine made monster grinned at him and took the shot. Nines screamed at the bullet digging into his shoulder through plastic and wires. He tried getting Gavin’s shotgun out, but the thing in front of him took it and threw it into the bushes behind it. Cursing, Nines kicked against the desk to push himself further into the room. The android just had to turn around and in the light Nines could see multiple android bodies had been used to create this monstrosity. Two spines and chests made up its torso and four legs had been twisted into two. He swallowed and tried to get to his feet before the thing could lash out to him again, but somewhere in the process, the larger android had jumped and pressed him down with sheer weight.

Nines felt its hands wrap around his throat and digging into the space of his memory core. Only the strengthened armour of the RK900 units stood against the monster’s sheer strength and it was a matter of time until the metal plates would give in under this stress. There was only one option to survive this fight and Nines set everything on this one card. He reached out with his hand and held onto one of the spines, forcing an interface.  
He had to fight against the android’s anti-virus systems, but his attacks were the best developed there were and whatever Zlatko had written for this beast, it was no match for Nines. As soon as he broke through, he sent in everything he could. His code, his experiences as well as those the deviants had shared with him. He saw how the countermeasures grew weaker with every bit of data he sent and hoped it was enough to convince him. In the interface he learned the android had been Amanda’s personal guard ever since Gavin’s attack and had never been outside of this room. He changed his attack on his systems to show him the world outside and felt the longing setting in. At last, when he was sure to have shown the android everything he could, he told him of their plan and carefully left the interface. He was relieved the pressure on his memory core had subsided completely, but the monster was still pinning him to the ground and his hand was still at his throat.

He watched the red LED circling slowly and hoped for that yellow flicker. Instead, he got an instant blue and the android stood up, holding out his enormous hand to help him up. Nines took it and nodded grateful.  
‘Our name is Jerry. How can we help you?’  
Nines looked at the computer. ‘If you never left the room, do you know how to access Rebirth?’  
The other android nodded and opened a hull compartment unveiling a third arm with a specialised adapter instead of a hand.  
‘We will access the program’, they announced. ‘You will interface with us and end this.’

Rebirth was quite simple for what impact it had on all androids of the Citadel. A simple program to access an android’s memories and wipe them out or just reactivate one. He could see the fragmented messages leading deviants to Jericho – the remnants of some dead android managing to attack Rebirth just before being reset. He frowned finding his own model number in the code of these memories. A mystery for another time maybe, he concluded. He had to be quick. As Nines had sufficiently deleted all sections of the code that allowed someone to reset an android, he disconnected and sighed with relief.

‘What now?’, Jerry asked as the computer was shut down again.  
‘The android network. Where is it?’  
‘Next to the batteries there is a hidden room. We have access.’  
Nines looked at them, torn between going himself and the lingering question what had happened to Gavin. He pressed his eyes close, then made a decision.  
‘Go there, upload what I just shown you to them all and add a call to arms. This is a revolution.’  
The android gifted him a crooked grin and nodded, running off to the door and bursting through it.

Nines walked over to retrieve Gavin’s shotgun and braced to find the truth. He connected to the android network and didn’t have to search for long: Gavin was to be publicly executed to show the Citadel’s strength and take all hope from people trying to rebel in the future.

In ten minutes.

Needless to say Nines immediately bolted to the door, sprinting through the corridors. He jumped down the stairs to the repair rooms and didn’t bother using the ladder, compensating the impact perfectly. He ran through the batteries, not wasting another thought on them. He had only one mission: [Save Gavin Reed].  
His internal timer was counting down the minutes as he ran through hallways to reach the balcony in time. At two minutes until Gavin’s death, he noticed androids following him. Had Jerry been successful? Had this been deviants hiding? He didn’t care as long as they were there to help.

He wasn’t far now and could already hear Amanda’s voice booming from the balcony to the masses below that had crawled out of their hideouts hoping for a chance to get some water or food. Nines didn’t waste another second trying to understand what she was saying. He just threw open the door and bolted to Gavin, who was kneeling at the edge, hands free, but without any chance to help himself. Amanda stood to the right, Perkins at his side, hands itching to push Gavin off to drop more than thirty metres to the ground. All around them humans and android guards had gathered. The moment Nines and his deviant following breached through the door, they began shooting the humans next to them. Gavin turned around in surprise, just like Perkins and Amanda. Nines smiled seeing the human bruised and battered, but alive. Without much theatre Nines took his pistol to shoot Perkins in the head, killing him instantly, then he threw Gavin, who was standing on trembling feet, his shotgun, nodding once before focussing on Amanda.

Gavin looked at the gun as if not believing what had just happened. He had had no idea what had happened to Nines and with every passing minute he had believed him to be reset or simply forgotten somewhere. But now he was standing there with an android army in his back and Gavin had his shotgun back, aiming at Amanda once again. It brought back memories of his younger years, when he had stood there just like he did now. But there were no guards left to overwhelm him and wrestle him down this time. No. This time no one could stop him. And from the fear he saw in Amanda’s eyes, she knew it, too.

Gavin smiled. That changed everything. He changed his grip on his shotgun and waited until silence settled in. Then he spoke with a firm voice: ‘I always thought it had to be this way. I always thought living under your reign and looking the other way to your injustice was the only way to survive in this world.’ Gavin looked over to Nines and continued: ‘A certain android once told me it doesn’t have to be this way. He had to die, and I had to see your cruelty myself to remember what he said was the truth. Your reign ends today. This is for Tina. This is for Chris and Sixty and every unnamed android that was killed by you in Rebirth. For every human starving out there or dying of disease and war. This is for trying to break me.’

He cocked his shotgun and pulled the trigger, watching with silent satisfaction, as Amanda’s body fell over, falling from the balcony and dropping to the ground. He didn’t watch how it hit the ground and how the crowd immediately dove in.  
He only lowered his shotgun feeling the loss of his friends all over again. At least now they hadn’t died for nothing. At least now they had been revenged. And he wasn’t the one who had survived because he had been broken. Now he was the one completing the mission. It lifted an enormous weight from his shoulders and the only emotion he felt was relief.

He returned to this world, when Nines stepped next to him and he saw that gentle smile on his face again. ‘It’s over’, he stated, holding Gavin by the shoulders. ‘It’s finally over now. And we’re both alive.’  
Gavin nodded exhausted as everything suddenly felt like it was made out of lead. The gun fell from his hand, his fingers unable to hold it now that it had the weight of a truck. ‘Nines, I think I…’ He managed to say, before his legs gave in underneath him and all the stress, the blood loss, the lack of food and water and sleep deprivation caught up with him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading! This had been a journey for me and I want to thank you for giving this story a read and joining me on it! Your lovely comments have kept me motivated to write this and it was really fun to write the end! I hope you enjoyed and don't worry, there is a short epilogue for you next Chapter!


	9. Epilogue - Partners

Gavin woke up in a room he didn’t know that was dimly lit by the light of the setting sun. How often he would wake up somewhere entirely different he should be used to it by now. He groaned and tried to turn around, but his back and head were killing him.  
‘Here.’  
A metal cup of water was placed at his lips and he greedily drank it in one go.  
‘Careful’, someone chuckled and took the cup away as it was empty.  
Gavin frowned and looked towards the origin of the voice.  
‘Nines?’  
‘Yes.’  
‘Is it true? Amanda’s dead?’  
Nines smile widened. ‘Yes. You made it.’  
‘Couldn’t have done it without you.’  
Nines huffed in amusement. ‘I could say the same.’  
‘And what now?’  
‘The androids have been woken up. Rebirth is intact but lacks the possibility to change something about our personality. It truly is just eternal life for all that aren’t irreparably damaged. The batteries have been freed and we are currently trying to find a solution to generate enough power for the pumps without killing androids. Jeffrey Fowler took over for now, but we contacted Jericho too. We’ll take care something like Amanda’s reign never happens again.’  
‘You are not leading them?’  
‘Me?’, Nines asked. ‘No, that’s not my thing I think.’  
‘And what is your thing?’, Gavin asked.

‘My thing…’, Nines repeated, but disregarded the question. Instead, he leaned to the side and retrieved something from the ground. ‘Here, I got you something.’ He handed Gavin a very familiar steering wheel, a little melted at the front. Gavin frowned and Nines grimaced. ‘Unfortunately, the only thing salvageable from your rig. But… the Citadel still needs drivers for supply runs… And I don’t have a designated driver yet to escort, too…’  
‘You want to be my personal escort?’, Gavin asked.  
‘If you want to be my driver?’, Nines nodded, a blue blush creeping up his cheeks. ‘Once you recovered, of course’, Nines reminded him and Gavin nodded absent-mindedly.

‘Why are you here, Nines?’, he sighed then. ‘I killed you. At least once, if you don’t count the consensual shot to the regulator.’  
‘I didn’t want you to wake up alone, so someone could answer your questions and you’d see a familiar face.’  
‘And you wanted to ask me to be your partner’, Gavin nodded. ‘Nothing more?’  
Nines looked down to his hands. ‘I also wanted to thank you’, he whispered then. ‘You made all this possible. And…’  
‘And?’

Nines sheepishly looked Gavin in the eyes, then leaned forwards in a rush and pressed his lips on his. Gavin was surprised by the sudden kiss and maybe it was still the light-headedness from having defeated Amanda once and for all, but Gavin returned it almost immediately.  
They separated far too quickly, Nines looking at him as if wanting to see if that was okay. Gavin just smirked, pushing the steering wheel aside and turning to the android fully, ignoring his headache as he dove in for another kiss, deeper this time, resting one hand on his neck to keep him close.  
Once they separated again for air, Gavin pressed his forehead to the android’s and chuckled.

‘I’ll be your phcking driver.’

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading! Please check out the artist lonely_pilot and my tumblr fandom-necromancer if you want!

**Author's Note:**

> This is our entry for the Reed900ReverseBigBang 2020! Please check out @oddielot, the artist on tumblr for more awesome art!


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